Hi Allen and Everyone,

Allen asked:
"Do the bees tend to store more honey in the supers and tend to draw away
from these cooler bottom boards?"

In my experience - note only a few colonies all in one location - the bees seem to "like" the screen bottoms and in fact will rear brood to the bottombar just above the screen and in fact will also raise queen cells on that bottombar.  Anyone  who switches to fully open 8 mesh bottoms should check the bottom of the bottom box during swarm season for cells or they may be unaware that a colony is bent on swarming.
Again Allen just my observations at one location here in MN.  I do leave the mesh bottoms on and open during the winter and the do fine.  My colonies are on stands made of old redwood 4 X 4's and so are about 8 inches above the ground with plenty of room for air circulation under the hives.

FWIW

blane



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Blane White
MN Dept of Agriculture
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