Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => RAPID BEEYARD GROWTH => Topic started by: rjsittig on February 26, 2011, 05:40:02 pm
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has anyone have bad luck with screen bottom board? put new board on and lost 4 haves sense Jan.. today found another that was been rob and no bees left in hive except the robbers and the honey was still full in second box but nothing in the bottom box. have 6 hives that don't have screen and the hives are full. the boxes that have screes left with bees, the bees have moved to the second box with the larvies and honey and left the bottom box. anyone else have that luck?
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go into your profile and put your location. you'll get better location specific answers :-D
i use screened bottom boards, but i put the insert in for about 8 or 9 months of the year. i find them convenient for swarm catching and mite checking, but don't want them open in winter.
it is normal for the bees to be near the top at this time of the year. they move up into the food over winter and move down in spring and summer.
how much was stored in each box? how full of bees were they? might you have left them to much space or not enough food? what do the empty hives look like? dead bees, dead on the bottom, stuck in the cells, in a clump, etc.?
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no dead bees, boxes were full,both top &bottom.the cones were empty except some pollen in the cone no larvea, just empty boxes
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What size is hardware cloth in the SBB :?
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
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it was 1/8wire
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If you do not have a windbreak, cold winter wind can blow through a screened bottom board and cause problems.
With a windbreak to prevent wind from whipping in the bottom of the hive, I have several hives with open screened bottom boards that overwinter with no noticeable ill effect.
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this is the firest year that i tried the screenbottom board. i got the i/8 wire and made the sbb myself from a pattern with the board enclosed to keep the wind out of the hive. started to feed the bees sugar water and brood builder first of feb.and that's when i started to see the empty hives. the cone shows were the cone was full of brood and honey and pollen and the second boxes werefilled with 8 or 10 frames of honey. when i firest open the first empty hive there was no dead bees no larvae Harley no pollen and no honey. i found 4 hives this way. today i found 3 hives where the bees moved up to top hive and the had nothing in the bottom box,not any larvae,there was no bees honey or pollen,all holes were empty. they had maybe 10 to 15 dead bees on 1 screen. this started after i been feeding the bees now three weeks. hope this inform u better about what is happening.
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What has been your weather this year, I see your currently running low 70 days and 60 nites.
If you have the boards installed the they are no different than a regular bottom board, so I see no way a screened bottom board with the cover board installed would in any way affect your problem.
But what do I know
Bee-Bop
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I run a mess of sbb. I leave them open during the summer but most do have oil trays under them.
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so except for one hive, all the others had no food even though you had been feeding them? and no/very few dead bees?