Another equipment question???

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#excluders

[tillie]

Annette,

I only use the slatted rack above the SBB - not at the top of the hive, like Brian does.  I bought them for ventilation and the bees hang out there - it made such a difference in the bees' bearding and my naive peace of mind when I thought they wanted to swarm that I now order a slatted rack every time I buy a new hive configuration.

After reading Michael's page link, I remember that I once used a queen excluder in a hive when I had two queens and I wanted to prove it by leaving the two parts of the hive separated by the queen excluder to see if after a week, there was new brood.  In fact there was and I did have two queens but the hive failed in the end and I believe that the bees killed both queens or they each otherwise died. 

The lesson was that when I added the queen excluder, I should have left the hive exactly as I had found it - honey bound in the bottom.  Instead as I added the queen excluder, I also cleared out the honey frames between the two queens.  Then the bees from the bottom box had access to the bees in the top box through the queen excluder and killed the "new" queen.

Linda T in Atlanta with so much beekeeping yet to learn

[Cindi]

Thank you for the responses, ya'll.  I think I am getting the picture now, hard for me, but getting it.

The dowels are situated in the middle of the shim, horizontally, parallel to the frames.  So this means that above the dowels, there is a space, the frame bottoms do not come close to resting on the dowels.  This is where the bees rest and have extra room?  I think this is the final part of the picture that I need to understand, but almost there,  :) :)  Have a wonderful and great day.  Cindi

[Zoot]

Cindi,

Sounds like you're on the mark. There is space for the bees above and below the dowels. I use 1" wooden dowels (rather expensive unfortunately) now centered on a shim frame that is 1 3/4" high. I made my first ones with a 1 3/8" shim using 3/4" dowels and that seemed fine but I have since deferred to Brian's design. Either way it worked and I never had burr comb issues.

[Robo]

I prefer the slatted rack to the screened bottom board as they not only handle the bearding/ventilation issues, but help maintain a warmer and higher humidity brood chamber which is a less ideal environment for varroa and also leads to a bigger/faster Spring build up.

There are good plans to build your own here -> http://www.beesource.com/plans/bottomrack.htm
I had good success with these on standard wooden Langstroth.

I have since moved to a Killion/Miller based design sized to fit polystyrene hives.  I like these because I can easily install my night light heaters.




As far as queen excluders,  I also use them and find them quite useful.  Not for honey production, but for "including" new swarms and for queen rearing. It is a good idea to have 1 or 2 on hand as they do come in handy from time to time.

[Cindi]

Rob, very nice pictures, thank you for posting.  I looked at the Beesource site, oh brother, now what!!!!!

But here we go again.  Ask 10 beekeepers and question and you will get 10 different answers, hee, hee  ;) :) :) :)

Rob it appears that the slats in the slatted bottomboard that you are using go across the hive, not lengthwise to the frame.

Which is the best method, across or parallel?  Maybe someone should do a poll to see which is more used.  I don't know how, so if anyone feels so, do so.  These things are making a confused woman even more confused.

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of how to make or use solid bottomboards.  Oh brother.....back to the drawing board again.  have a great and wonderful AND....beautiful day.  Cindi

[Robo]

Across was the standard until screened bottom boards came into favor and someone figured rotating the slats parallel to the frames would be less of a hindrance to dropping mites.  That of course assumes you get the slats under the frames.  If you get your frames skewed or 9vs.10, the slats would actually catch all the mites. :-\

Although mites falling thru a SBB seems great in principle, the actual amount and benefit seems to be debatable.   Since I don't use SBB,  it is not an issue for me.  I prefer the across design as it block the direct draft of the front entrance and also disperses the traffic flow away from the front corners of the frames.

[Cindi]

Rob, hmmmm....so much food for thought.

When I began to winter my colonies, I removed the screened bottomboards and replaced them with solid bottomboards.  I did this so I could perform the oxalic acid vapourizing, it cannot be performed with screen bottomboards, unless they are somehow tightly closed up.  I had enough solid bottomboards for all the colonies.

Now, I think that I am going to have to get into more research again over this winter regarding solid versus screened bottomboards.

You say that you use solid, and the slotted racks and you like that style.  I am interested in this concept, because leaving the solid bottomboards on permanently and using slotted racks would allow for easy vapourizing of the colonies any time that mites seem to get up there in numbers.  I love to monitor mites and count them (hee, hee)  ;) :) :) (that would annoy Finsky terribly, right Finsky??  ;) :).  So I have fun inserting sticky boards and seeing how many mites fall off them.  It is a good exercise to keep my counting skills honed  :) :)

So much studying to do about the bees, but I am on a quest for knowledge, and this I shall always do.  Have a wonderful and great day, love our life we live.  Cindi

[TwT]

about 4 years ago I bought one from betterbee, I took it apart and used it as a patern and made 3 more, I have never used one yet, going to this coming year but going to make some more this winter!!

Robo, this inline rack does all that you were talking about right, it protects the front of the hive from drafts and breaks up the traffic flow, or am I misunderstanding you?




by the way nice pics Robo, looks like a phone line running into the hive, I thought you would have got your bee's cable instead of dial-up, bet they grip about the slow connection ;)

[KONASDAD]

I use the betterbee. I think its inportant to run the bars parralell to the frames. Brians design uses round dowels which would shed mites no matter their orientation, but I believe he runs them parrallel to the frames too.

[Brian D. Bray]

I use the betterbee. I think its inportant to run the bars parralell to the frames. Brians design uses round dowels which would shed mites no matter their orientation, but I believe he runs them parrallel to the frames too.

The main thing is to use round stock for the slats and run them in the same direction as the frames even if they don't line up perfectly.  Konasdad is correct in that round lets the mites roll off the slats, fall throught the SBB, and out of the hive.