Slatted bottom racks

[beejack1]

I posted this inquiry in the greetings page and not sure if it will get enough notice there so I will post it here also. I am starting beekeeping in the spring and will be going to top entrances. Just wondering if slotted racks would be ok with these top entrances. And if is worthwhile to use them.
 Thank you.

[GSF]

I'm unfamiliar with slotted racks.

[little john]

For those who've not come across slatted racks before - they were a 'false floor' invented by CC Miller to significantly improve ventilation from below, and to give the bees somewhere to 'get off the combs' and hang out during very hot weather.  This is an example of one of Miller's prototypes:




And this, an illustration from Killion's 'Honey in the Comb:




The basic idea is to raise the combs up off the real floor, and in order to generate that space without comb being built within it, a number of slats are incorporated which are positioned directly underneath the combs of the bottom box (as if they were the frame top bars of yet another box). One end is left completely open during summer, but the size of the opening can be reduced if necessary.

Slatted racks can be made either with the slats running width-wise or length-wise, and are one of those ideas which never seems to have caught on amongst mainstream beekeepers.  But - those who have used them speak highly of an improvement in the reduction of swarming and the complete elimination of bearding.

I'm currently making slatted-rack floors for my hybrid 'National-Warre' hives. I've never used them before, and am looking forward with great interest to see whether they're an improvement over Open Mesh Floors.

As Slatted-Racks were always intended to be an integral part of a bottom-entrance system, I can't comment on their use with top entrances.  The creation of a through-draught would be my biggest concern.

LJ

[JackM]

I use them in every hive.  Make my own, make the slats to go perpendicular to the frames.  My reason is to disrupt fast, upward air flow in the winter and this enables me to leave the screened bottoms in year round.