Hive Repair - Bottom Board Screen coming off..?

[MikeEH]

Hi All,

Last night I noticed that some of my bees were flying out from under the bottom of the hive. It was almost the same amount as were coming out of the entrance. My hive is on a pallet, so I put my phone through the slats and aimed it up at the bottom of the hive to get a few pictures. Attached is what I found. It seems that the hive screen has disconnected at one or more places and the bees are crawling out that way. I'm pretty sure I need to do something about this ASAP to avoid any future problems, but I am not sure how to go about it. Should I remove all the hive bodies and staple the screen back in place? Should I buy another screened bottom board and just replace it? We, as in my bees and I, are also still recovering from a lot of rainy, windy weather (hurricane season) and I am worried that I may disrupt their recovery by opening the hive right now.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Mike

[Charlie B]

Make or buy another one and just replace it. You will then have time to repair the old one. (It's nice to have spares of everything anyway). Just take the boxes off with out going into them and put the new one in place. You won't disturb them too much.

[waynesgarden]

Take a heavy duty stapler out to the beeyard, pop the hive boxes off staple the screen back in and reassemble. A five minute job at most. Or, if your hive is due for an end-of-season inspection, do it then while you have the hive apart.

I make all my bottom boards and sometimes I'll swap one out for repair but there is no need to buy or make a spare to have on hand for this simple fix.

Wayne

[MikeEH]

Thanks for the replies!

I will be checking on the hive later this week, if the weather holds, and can make the fix then. I really like the idea of having an extra bottom board, and making one at that. So I will give that a whirl as well.

I appreciate the responses,

Mike