screened bottom board

**woollybee** · 11-03-2010, 05:10 PM

I have had a screened bottom board on my hive all the time during the summer months. It worked great as far as ventilation goes, I think. Now I noticed that there are bees at the underside of it. Could they be trying to get in (robbing)? We are approaching the dry season with not much going on as far as blooming goes. Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions!

**Barney** · 11-03-2010, 05:21 PM

I have sbb on all my hives and I see that all the time nothing to worry.

**KQ6AR** · 11-03-2010, 05:26 PM

It could be other bees looking for an easy way in. It happens sometimes on my hives also.

**DoubleB** · 11-04-2010, 02:45 PM

I have sliding trays under my sbb. And quite often they have much dropped pollen on them. It could be that those bees are just gathering whatever they can use.

**bbbbeeman** · 11-04-2010, 03:33 PM

I have used sbb with the oil pan for16 years and pollen get in the oil all the time just change it when the oil is thick with pollen.the oil pans have worked well for me no chem` and very little hive problems. good luck rock.

**My-smokepole** · 11-05-2010, 08:27 AM

bbbbeeman where are you getting your pans from?
David

**bbbbeeman** · 11-05-2010, 02:29 PM

I use food trays from a local food supplier. but if you google freeman bottom board you can see every thing you need to know. good luck rock.

**Mike Snodgrass** · 11-05-2010, 06:59 PM

bbbeeman..how do you use the trays? Do you just have them propped up under the SBB or do you use the sticky board slide in slot some how? Thanks.

**Alex Cantacuzene** · 11-06-2010, 08:28 AM

We have used SBB for years and we also use oiled white Formica boards under them to see what is coming from the top, Varroa, Small Hive Beetles, larva, cell caps etc.
They work great but this year we had one hive that was overwhelmed with SHB and we lost it. Now we are using trays from Dadant that have oil in them and they seem to work so far. We have tried all kinds of beetle traps, none were very satisfactory. The best I think is a strong population. We are now reluctantly also using ground saturation with StarGuard. We don't like chemicals but we try to keep it to a minimum outside of the hives that is. This year we used no fogging with food grade mineral oil and Thymol, although it worked in the past, or any other treatment. We also tried to interfere as little as possible with the bees, such as inspections etc. We had a record crop, but that might have to have to do with the weather too. Oh well, we will keep on learning and now we hope to get the girls through the winter with a large supply of honey and the "Mountain Camp Method". Take care and have fun