I have screened bottoms w/corregated plastic sheets that slide under the screen for checking for mites on my Langstroth hives. During the summer, should that piece of plastic stay in the hive or only while I am checking for mites? I am wondering about ventalation. I guess I am a bit paranoid after my two top bar hive installs went sour and the bees left those hives. I am looking now at my 6 other hives making sure I am not setting them up for failure.
Jeremy
the only time I put the bottom in is to check for mites ..
thats summer and winter..
I know someone who leaves the boards in, he takes them out the first step of inspection to give him an idea of the status of the hive by what he sees on the board. In my own ways of thinking (not always the brightest bulb inthe room) I feel leaving the board in defeats the purpose of having SBB's, which is to make it easier for the girls to dump out trash and pests of the hive. I leave the boards out of my sbb's.
Quote from: the kid on May 21, 2009, 11:52:51 PM
the only time I put the bottom in is to check for mites ..
thats summer and winter..
Me too.
If you leave them in, they'll get all gunky and it's a pain to clean them
before doing a mite count. It's a bigger pain to clean them in the spring after they've been in all winter.
When I lived in Mobile, AL I left mine out all the time. I had no problems. They started raising brood in January.
The guy I was working the bees with at the time had solid bottom boards. His hives always bearded in the Summer, and seemed to start raising brood about the same time. Second on the Spring cleaning.
So small sample comparison, we had a combined 8 hives, but I did alot less work on mine. Your weather is alot colder, so you might need to experiment.
All depends on your belief in the importance of heat retention for the brood nest
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,22228.msg171090.html#msg171090
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,21174.msg162151.html#msg162151