Re the question of screened vs solid boards:
I use both simultaneously on the same stack as I value each for their particular benefits. I also use a slatted rack under the lowest box, which is a newer addition to my standard set-up than the two-bottom board approach which I have used for a decade.
I am northeast of Albany, NY, so in a cold, z4-ish climate.
I formerly also ran a medium "pollen box" under my lowest brood chamber, but had to abandon that to combat small hive beetles. I do think the screened bottom board increases SHB problems, somewhat, because they can easily get in through the #8 screen of the SBB. I try to alleviate the risk of this by keeping the unused entrance capacity of the lower (solid) board tightly closed up using a solid, and in winter weatherstripped, closure.
I don't think I could handle the cold exposure of a screen-board only, even with the flimsy coroplast board in place, in my cold winters, though I know of local beekeepers that do this, more or less successfully. They tolerate winter losses, but I do not. My wintering hives are heavily insulated (sides and top) which I credit for my normally zero winter losses.
Oddly, I find the screened boards most useful in the late fall through spring as I pay close attention to the sticky boards below my hives while using OAV, and for monitoring hive status all winter when opening the hives is out. In the summer I can just take the top off and poke my nose in, so they are of less value in warm weather. In my moderately hot, but often humid, summer climate I think that having so much open space under the hive would make for more work evaporating the nectar into honey.
Even though broodless-period rounds of OAV are the core of my annual varroa-control plan, I found that OAV-ing up through the screen resulted in very poor dispersion and thus far less effective control than sticking the wand through the front entrance on top of the screen.
If you're wondering about whether to switch to a solid board, you've nothing to lose by trying both of them, at once, on a hive or two. Just make sure that the entrance on the lower, solid, board faces backwards, and that the hive is tipped slightly backwards, not forwards as is customary for drainage.
Nancy
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