Mesh floor question

[Amari]

I have a few mesh floors, much prefer the solid, so never changed over to mesh.

HM, in winter do you have any top ventilation on your solid floor hives? I last used SFHs 15 years ago with the holes in the crown board and roof vents open (no matchsticks tho').
I'm wondering if the teaching has changed.

 

[Poly Hive]

Top ventilation was never taught up here as far as I know. The photos of the old Glen double wall hives had piles of cloths and blankets on top of the crown boards.

I suspect it was a southern thing mainly.

PH

 

[Amari]

Could be. I learnt my beekeeping at Sparsholt Agricultural College in Hampshire early 1970s

 

[masterBK]

This is photo I took in the early 1970's of a WBC hive belonging to a man who had died in his late 80's and hadn't opened his hive for quite a while. Note the "insulation" on top. The bees had moved out of the inner boxes into the cavity between them and the lifts. There was both a mouse nest and a bumble bee nest in the boxes.

 

[For want of a better word]

This is photo I took in the early 1970's of a WBC hive belonging to a man who had died in his late 80's and hadn't opened his hive for quite a while. Note the "insulation" on top. The bees had moved out of the inner boxes into the cavity between them and the lifts. There was both a mouse nest and a bumble bee nest in the boxes.

Looks like one of mine!!!!

Grandad would put several potatoe's sacks on top of the calico quilt ( No hard crown board.
I use a 50mm slab on top (OMF with glass quilt/ crownboads... no vents)

Use WBCs as it is what people want to see in their "Country" estates!
Have a few scattered across Cornwall in Garden centers!

Nadelik Lowen

 

[Hivemaker.]

HM, in winter do you have any top ventilation on your solid floor hives?

No... insulated roofs with no holes in them, full sized entrances.

 

[madasafish]

No... insulated roofs with no holes in them, full sized entrances.

+1

 

[Swarm]

The bees had moved out of the inner boxes into the cavity between them and the lifts.

So they were quite happy without insulation then.

 

[Beefriendly]

Bit of a loaded question given the obvious decrepit nature of a long abandoned hive....

If Beekeeper had been using WBC correctly there would have been no gap, it would have been filled with insulating material. Not just a few sacks thrown on top.

 

[For want of a better word]

Bit of a loaded question given the obvious decrepit nature of a long abandoned hive....

If Beekeeper had been using WBC correctly there would have been no gap, it would have been filled with insulating material. Not just a few sacks thrown on top.

Is was stated LONG ABANDONED....... how long I wonder?

Pic taken in 70s... no OMF in those days!

Nadelik Lowen

 

[Madge]

So they were quite happy without insulation then.

To me it looks as though the colony might have outgrown the boxes, and over-spilled into the double-wall area - so, they probably still benefitted from the insulation.

 

[masterBK]

Photo of WBC brood chamber of the neglected hive in question.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

If anyone has seen a varroa mite crawling on the mite board under the mesh floor, then the mesh floor is working - to a degree at least. And mites migrating to a vasalene perimeter 'fence' would also indicate the mesh floor is working. In addition you can count the mites that fall - unlike with a solid floor.

To answer the original question, If I couldn't get the mite board out, I would leave 'till spring rather than disturb the bees.

 

[Repwoc]

If anyone has seen a varroa mite crawling on the mite board under the mesh floor, then the mesh floor is working -

Yes, I've seen moving mites on the inspection board.

 

[Swarm]

Photo of WBC brood chamber of the neglected hive in question.

Abandoned an insulated space for a bigger, less insulated space.