[Leroy]

I want to build a hive with things I have on hand.
I have a roll of screen door wire. It is painted black.
Will the holes be to small for the mites to drop lthrough?

 

[Moots]

I want to build a hive with things I have on hand.
I have a roll of screen door wire. It is painted black.
Will the holes be to small for the mites to drop lthrough?

Not much solid is going to make it through screen door wire...not even a mite!

Most folks use #8 hardware cloth for their SBB...that's a wire every 1/8th of an inch, or 8 opening per inch.. Significantly larger than window screen material.

 

[Leroy]

Thank you MOOTS.

I will have to put wire on my list.

 

[Leroy]

I have made it to a hardware store.they only have one quarter inch wire cloth. Is it too big.?

Found some in the next town.

 

[Joseph Clemens]

I build my hives out of lumber; plywood or one by dimensional lumber. How are you going to build hives out of screen door wire?

 

[Rader Sidetrack]

You don't need any screen wire/hardware cloth to build a TBH. I suggest following the guidelines here:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopbarhives.htm

If you do want to use wire, 1/4" screen is big enough to allow bees to pass. That will work as a mouse guard for the entrance, but is not suitable for a screen bottom on a hive.

 

[Leroy]

Skipping the screen will be a lot easier.
I think that is the way I will go.