Screen bottom hive stand

[Big John]

New to bee keeping this is my first year, hived ordered 3lb bees on 7 April 08, bees doing good they are already pulling honey cone out on second hive body. My question is do I need to pun a screened bottom with sticky board on my hive and maintain it year round?

[bassman1977]

I have them on the majority of my hives.  It's primarily for ventilation and I guess the jury is still out as to whether or not it actually keeps the mite levels low.  The argument is that the mites will fall off the bees during grooming, fall through the screen, and not be able to crawl back into the hive. 

As far as ventilation, it works great during the summer.  Personally, I would not recommend keeping it open during the winter as I have lost hives this way.  I know there are a lot of people further north than me that keep it open year round and have success with it.  Me....no way.

In regards to the sticky board, my suggestion is to use it at the beginning of the season to check mite levels and near the end of the season, for the same reason.  It's basically a tool to monitor mite levels and it does not need to be used year round.

[qa33010]

    You don't have to maintain the sticky boards year round, unless you wish to.  I normally do a mite drop count in January for a week (3 days and then 4 day drop counts).  Again in May the same way and again in August to prepare for winter. 

    The SBB I keep mine open year round even through sleet/snow/ice ect...  My experience has been, this past winter, two hives with solid bottom boards were extremely slow to build up and the four others with sbb's built fast.  I did have one hive die of starvation, couldn't move to the frames with honey, and two abscond over the winter which left me with four sbb hives and one solid bottom (had to recheck my notes).  I recommend you get with local beeks and ask those with sbb's how they winter.  Keep in mind we all have our own ways of doing things and get with those that have a high survival rate.

   I like the sbb's for not only ventilation but from suffocation in winter if I have a reduced bottom entrance that may get plugged with debris or dead bees.  IMHO that is.  Here, I'll give you change for that two cents worth... will a penny and a half do? :-D