Your craftsmanship looks like fine work. Will you briefly describe the use or purpose of a slotted rack?
Thanks,
Phillip
Thank you, Phillip.
When I got through and described it to Mary she said it is like a bee lobby!
It is inserted between the bottom board and brood chamber. It creates a relatively draft free air space so the queen will lay eggs plumb to the bottom of the frames just above it. When it gets really hot the bees can hang out there instead of bearding outside and it provides staging for those that fan to circulate just the right amount of current within the hive.
I'll need to rebuild my cover because it is both ugly and lacks ventilation -- we're not on the South Plains here were it cools off after sunset but in the Permian Basin where our summer nights stay hot.
I built it combining the old fashioned way of having the slats perpendicular to the frames but in the contemporary way with a 4" board at the front over the entrance.
This hive has top space only so the frames go to zero. Therefore, I built the top of the slotted rack with 3/8" space. Then, going down we have the 3/4x3/4" slot pieces and next 7/8" of clear space (the lobby).
My entrance is 3/8x5 inches; so, not much air, either cold or hot, getting in! But the key is how to manage it. That is what the slotted rack helps to do as I understand it.
For hive cover ventilation I'm thinking about 7/8" screened holes that can be plugged with wine bottle corks! LOL