Slatted Racks. Do you use them?

[Dora]

I searched the fora for "Slatted racks" and saw nothing much recent. So I'm wondering if anyone has experience with them.

This article sounds like it might be a great idea for temperature control:
https://www.honeybeesuite.com/slatted-racks-everything-you-need-to-know/#h-is-this-a-new-invention Makes a lot of sense to me.

They're form $25 to nearly $30 to buy, but I suspect the material wouldn't cost nearly as much. Haven't priced it out, though. Really need to keep my hubby busy tinkering. 😉 The more time he invests in the bees, the more cooperative he's likely😊

[Michael Bush]

At one time I had one for every hive.  I got more hives and converted to eight frame from ten frame so none of them fit anymore.  They do help some, but not enough that I ever replaced them.

[The15thMember]

I'm a Honey Bee Suite groupie basically , so I bought slatted racks for my first 2 or 3 years of beekeeping, since my climate is very similar to Rusty's.  Once I had enough hives that I felt comfortable experimenting a little more, I set up a couple of hives without them to compare.  I've noticed very little difference between hives that have them and hives that don't.  I do use the ones I own, but like Michael, I haven't seen the need to invest in more.   

[Terri Yaki]

They do look intreresting.

[Dora]

Thanks much for sharing, Michael and "15"

Considering that the racks are relatively expensive and seem to make little difference, I won't plan on them for spring. 2024

[gww]

I am a bee haver and not a bee keeper but I love the slatted rack.  I started with out them when I first began and did a couple hives side by side.  I was dumb then and so all I noticed was less bearding but built all my own stuff and so have had them on every since.  This means I have very little experience with out them.  Since I knew from the beginning that I was only going to be a hobby bee keeper and was not going to just keep expanding I figure why not.  If I had to buy them, I would not use them cause I am cheap and know many keep bees with out them.  How handy are you?
Cheers

[Ben Framed]

I never investigated slanted racks. I watched several videos before becoming a beekeeper and never seen them in use, so I never considered them. Like gww, I built my own equipment. 

Phillip

[Dora]

Hm... GWW, if you observed "less bearding" that corroborates an advantage mentioned at https://www.honeybeesuite.com/slatted-racks-everything-you-need-to-know/#h-is-this-a-new-invention It would seem to mean that it gives the bees an "air conditioning" advantage, and that is important in our part of Texas where we had highs of over 100F consistently for months last summer.

Thank you for sharing that!

My hubby has built and will build our own equipment. So the racks are considerably more affordable for us than if we had to buy them.

[gww]

In you other thread question.  I use solid bottom.