Hi All, I am trialling 2 hives here at home with no floor and have been dutifully measuring the depth of the cluster below the bottom frame rail. All is going more or less as I would have expected. I also keep a hive for a keen lady who wanted to trial the floorless hive concept. I had almost forgotten this but was quickly reminded of its floorless condition when I examined the bottom box frames. Many frames had bur drone comb attached to them, one had a 200 mm crescent of capped drone comb hanging from it's bottom frame rail. SO I have added another tool to my hive inspection box, a 550 mm handled 35mm thisel like tool. The idea is that I first put in my mite counting drawer, through the rear opening door, and then use the long handled chisel to cut off all the drone brood and remove it on the counting drawer and hopefully a lot of varroa mites contained therein. DETAILS The West and North hives are floorless'. (no screen, nothing) The sub-floor volume is enclosed on all sides by a 6mm tanalised plywood surround (an unpainted stand) 250 mm above the bare ground. The rear wall of this stand is hinged to open DOWNWARDs. The bees enter the hive in the 'normal' manner through a 20mm X 365mm opening at the front. In summer, rear flap (180 mm X 280 mm) will be left swung open for ALL to come and go and to increase the ventilation. A mite counting drawer can be laid on the ground via the rear opening flap, to catch all 'fall' material over, say, a 24 hour period, for general 'health' monitoring. I have measured the distance the 'bee cluster' extends below the bottom frame bar at dusk. (by opening the rear flap and inserting a scale on a stick) Date 8Apr 15Apr 22Apr 29Apr 12May 22May 29May 19Jun 14Jul 28Jul 22Aug North hive 40mm 55 68 40 37 20 15 18 22 34 28 West hive 30mm 55 50 55 45 30 35 38 38 45 42 Temperature/°C 11 8 11 10 13 Cheers Paul b. Auckland, New Zealand.