[mike haney]

i have screened bottoms and i leave them open all winter-sometimes stays in single digits for days here the decideing factor(mistake/no mistake) is wether the nucs have enough bees to keep whatever brood is present warm and still form a cluster. good luck,mike

 

[rlc5925]

[
Thanks Mike, Do you think 45 would be harful to the brood?

 

[mike haney]

the brood must be kept in the low 90's (f) but if there were sufficient bees they will keep them warm a lot colder that 45. mine have a small amount of brood here at 15 deg. but thats in a full hive. if the nucs have queen and enough bees to keep HER warm, likely you will be fine. good luck,mike

 

[BEES4U]

So my question is with the temps. dropping to 45 and partial exposure from the bottom, have I done a bad thing. Thanks

It was 37 here this morning after I transferred some 5 framers.
No screened bottoms.
Heat rises, should not be a problem.
Here's a photo of what I am talking about.

Ernie

 

[chillardbee]

you have absolutly nothing to fear on that. It was suggested to me to have screened bottoms on my hives as well left open all winter and have them sitting on a couple of pallets to keep them raised off the ground. This would provide good ventilation and reduce the moisture and thus chalk brood. there are othere benefits from using the screened bottoms as well.
As long as the bees are dry and have food there should be no problems. I had it once where the bees were brooding up early and had about 3 frames of brood in my hives by late february when we got about a 5 day cold snap that went down to -10C. There was only enough bees to cluster around the brood to try to keep it warm which meant they weren't near any honey. I had a real mess on that one. I lossed 6 outof the 50 hives and the rest were stunted and set back by weeks. They might of looked worse if i had screened bottoms and probably would of looked better if I had insolated them. The key words here though is brood to bee ratio and subzero temps.

hope every thing goes good for you. good luck.

 

[rlc5925]

Thanks everyone I really appreciate the replies