Hi, all:

Earlier someone on this list joked that we ought to ask the bees if they 
like screened bottom boards (SSB) or not.  Well, I have, sort of.  Since I 
ranch my bugs in Oklahoma (typically classified as American Southwest), I 
have converted all of my bottom boards into SSB’s, but not 100 % in 
configuration.  

What I have done was to recycle the old wood bottoms so that the front and 
the back of my SBB’s retain a palm of recycled old bottom pieces.  Of 
course, the front piece extends out to serve as the landing board while 
the back piece provides overall structural integrity.  Hence, about two 
thirds of my screened bottoms are open-screened (middle) whereas one third 
still has some measure of the wood at the back and at the front.  The 
result over a period of seven years has been that strong colonies tend to 
plug up the screens with propolis, almost in its entirety, especially in 
the late winter and early spring, coinciding with spring buildup, to cut 
down the draft during that time, typically the coldest time of the 
winter.  The bees don’t seem to realize, however, how hot it can get later 
in summer around here because once they plugged up the screens, there is 
no easy way to re-open the grid-cells in the screen.

No, I have not provided them any draft-breaker underneath because, on the 
one hand, I do not want them to consume too much store in our relatively 
mild winter by warming them up too much (imagine having to feed them in 
the midnight of winter) and on the other, they have been wintering well, 
particularly with heavy store atop which provides a great R-value in bee-
terms.  

(The greatest winter-loss across the country, in my opinion, still results 
from starvation, not CCD, mites, nosema, or operator error.  To digress a 
little further, I have been open-feeding since late September; in fact, 
even as I type this note, I can see my bees tornado at the watering hole 
right outside of my study, where I intentionally set the barrel next to 
the window.  Sure, strong colonies will come out of winter with two deeps 
of bees, if not more, allowing me to make late February splits, about two 
months ahead of the flow.  Black locust starts to pop around April 19th 
around here, signaling the start of the season.  These splits, in turn, 
allow me to make up any typically light winter-loss.  Also, surplus frames 
of syrup-honey is an excellent boost for the splits or much later for 
swarm-capture colonies)

But the above observation of bees’ plugging up the screen seem to indicate 
that a diligent beekeeper, like many of you on this thread, might want to 
provide some form of insulation particularly at the end of winter to kick 
start the brood-rearing, but not before.

Yoon

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