Hi Jim and Everyone,
Jim, who lives in Virginia USA in a somewhat milder climate than here
in Minnesota USA, wrote in part:

"Some people worry about the impact of screened bottoms on early
spring brood rearing and comb drawing.  Here's a trick - assuming
that you have a screen board sitting on a backwards-facing solid
bottom (which is how you slide in the sticky paper to be able to
count mites), you put a groove that is slightly wider than 1/4-inch
on the inner vertical surfaces of the solid bottom's sides (the part
that the brood chamber sits upon) you can then slide in a 1/4 plywood
sheet, and plug the very small opening that remains with a stick about
the size of an entrance reducer."

Why go to all that work?  I have been running colonies with open mesh
bottoms ( 8 mesh hardware cloth ) here in Minnesota for a few years now.
 The colonies are on stands open to the ground about 8 inches above the
ground.  The mesh bottoms are used year around with nothing under them
but the ground.  Colonies winter fine with them and seem to do fine in
the spring and summer.  Only one "problem" I have found - they will
raise brood to the bottombars of the bottom deep and hand swarm cells
from the bottombars of those frames so one has to check both brood
chambers for swarm cells during swarm season.

FWIW

blane


******************************************
Blane White
MN Dept of Agriculture
[log in to unmask]

******************************************
Blane White
MN Dept of Agriculture
[log in to unmask]

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