> Lloyd, do the bees propolis the screen up?  How large of an area on the
> bottom board do you remove to install the screen?  Or do you manufacture
> a different bottom board?

Personally believe there is a difference between screens and open mesh
floors. The former is a division between the brood box and normal solid
floor and as used in conjunction with an insert to monitor Varroa mite fall.
The space below these screens are breeding grounds for wax moth.

An open mesh floor is simply that - steel mesh supported by a light wooden
frame. I believe this is the type referred to by Lloyd.

My experiences -

[1] hives with solid floors. Invariably wild comb is built from the bottom
bars of the frame and fixed to the solid floor making removal and
replacement of frames a little more difficult. I use a larger hive than
normally promoted in the UK so it is not a shortage of brood rearing area.
Although the frames are more difficult to remove/replace I admit a
preference to seeing this comb, which invariably contains drone cells, in
this position rather than ruining the face of a good comb of worker brood.

[2] hives with open mesh floors, no comb is ever fixed to these and they
NEVER get propolised. But if I leave a travelling screen in place above the
brood box this invariably gets sealed with propolis. The same applies if I
fix a small piece of wire mesh over the feed holes. Why?? They seem to like
ventilation below but not from above.

It is fair to add that I am not a migratory beekeeper and the few travelling
screens that I own are made from a sheet of aluminium with small holes
drilled about every half inch - it was the acoustic panel that surrounded a
telephone booth. It is these holes that get blocked with propolis.

Previously Lloyd mentioned using old queen excluders, even mesh wider than 8
wires to the inch, as mesh floors, totally wrong I would say (and I think he
now agrees). The necessity of eight wire mesh is that it keeps the bees
secure, but allows ventilation and both moisture and VARROA MITES to drop,
virtually unimpeded, through.

When someone invented the smoker it must have been looked upon as an advance
in beekeeping. But now Liquid Smoke has been invented which I am informed is
better still. Such is the case with Solid Floors and Open Mesh Floors.

Ken Hoare in Shropshire UK (where thigh length waders are now needed)