Mesh floor sliding tray in or out?

[Cobbydaler]

I have a mesh floor with a sliding floor, do I keep the tray in permanently? Or just put it in every now and again to test for notes etc? Any advice would be appreciated

 

[Swn58]

I have a mesh floor with a sliding floor, do I keep the tray in permanently? Or just put it in every now and again to test for notes etc? Any advice would be appreciated

I keep mine in, especially in the winter. I check them often, to get an idea as to how a colony is doing without opening them up all the time.

 

[captain666]

I have all mine on open mesh floors with tray and I leave the tray in all the time. During summer I give them full entrance width for ventilation. This is later narrowed to accommodate a mouse guard for the winter.

For me, the advantage of the tray is that obviously you can remove and inspect for fallen debris, scrape it clean and you are ready for a later inspection.

So, very easy to see varroa drop and over winter you can tell where the cluster is and if they are uncapping stores. In early spring you can see wax flakes as the queen gets back into lay. great to do this without disturbing the bees.

IMO keeping bees over solid floors is like housing them over a skip.

 

[madasafish]

I house bees over an open floor. If you have hygenic bees, not an issue..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I have a mesh floor with a sliding floor, do I keep the tray in permanently? Or just put it in every now and again to test for notes etc? Any advice would be appreciated

The second - It's called an inspection tray as you use it to check mite drop occasionally. Mine stay out (In fact, I struggle to recall where most are) for all the year, some of mine are at pretty high elevations and they've never suffered for it over winter.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I leave mine out in the summer months and I put them back in when I start my treatments(varroa) or just before.
Using a inspection board doesn't give you a difinative answer as to the amount of varroa in a colony, but is good to see what your natural mite drop might be.

I leave my inspection boards in while treatment (to count varroa) and over winter mainly as a buffer as most of my colonys are on a hill.

I know of friends who leave them out pretty much all the time unless there counting varroa..
I think unless you have hives in an exposed position it makes no difference to your colonys.

Some will even use a nadired super as a buffer from the wind.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Mine are out in summer and largely in if I don't have a nadired super. My inspection trays sit a good two inches under the mesh floor and are open at the back

 

[Jowlpost]

The second - It's called an inspection tray as you use it to check mite drop occasionally. Mine stay out (In fact, I struggle to recall where most are) for all the year, some of mine are at pretty high elevations and they've never suffered for it over winter.

So yours stay out all the time .. so all the wax and other detritus drops out onto the ground, attracting wax moth, attracting small hive beetle, attracting mice, attracting wasps, attracting pigmy shrews , attacting hornets and all the other things most bee keepers are trying to avoid. Plus the bees have no opportunity to recycle the wax cappings, and pollen they may have dropped.

 

[Erichalfbee]

No SHB in U.K.
Debris falls into the grass where slugs etc deal with it.
Small rodents are not a problem in the summer
In winter mouse guards are in place
Generally only bees get in through an underfloor entrance any time of year.
The occasional hornet takes a few bees. They are not a problem.

 

[jool]

I leave mine out all year and only place for mite counts. Never had an issue.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

So yours stay out all the time .. so all the wax and other detritus drops out onto the ground, attracting wax moth, attracting small hive beetle, attracting mice, attracting wasps, attracting pigmy shrews , attacting hornets and all the other things most bee keepers are trying to avoid. Plus the bees have no opportunity to recycle the wax cappings, and pollen they may have dropped.

Goodness - your apiary seems to be alive with pestillence, I would have a bit of a tidy up if I were you.
I hope you've reported the fact you seem to have SHB to the NBU - it's mandatory to do so you know

 

[Gilberdyke John]

So yours stay out all the time .. so all the wax and other detritus drops out onto the ground, attracting wax moth, attracting small hive beetle, attracting mice, attracting wasps, attracting pigmy shrews , attacting hornets and all the other things most bee keepers are trying to avoid. Plus the bees have no opportunity to recycle the wax cappings, and pollen they may have dropped.

Not sure how your bees are going to access wax droppings trapped between the mesh floor and the inspection tray? I'm sure you will explain it to us.

 

[steve1958]

Leave them out.
Just use them when you are wanting to do a varroa count.
The debris that falls to the ground will biodegrade or be removed by ants.

 

[DaveG23]

If you leave a correx inspection tray in over winter can that make for a damper hive?

On the assumption that any moisture that goes through the mesh will just sit on the correx, then on the odd warm winter day it might just evaporate back up in to the hive?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If you leave a correx inspection tray in over winter can that make for a damper hive?

On the assumption that any moisture that goes through the mesh will just sit on the correx, then on the odd warm winter day it might just evaporate back up in to the hive?

it does. Insulation above the crown board means that condensation, instead of collecting on the crownboard and falling on the bees, collects on the hive walls and runs down the sides and out through the OMF

 

[bobba]

" recycle the wax cappings "

To my understanding bees cannot recycle wax. They cannot take old wax and form it into new shapes. They can only chew away old wax or make new. They cannot take wax from one pace and put it somewhere else. If anyone knows otherwise then please correct me.

I leave my trays open all year round, except when treating, or for newly house swarms that are getting settled.

I blieve keeping the floor open helps prevent the spread of some viruses. Some viruses are spread through feces which remain on the hive floor. There is also some new research showing some viruses (I cannot remember which ones off hand) are spread trough infected hairs that break off from the bees. So I blieve having an open floor will allow the infected hairs and poo to exit the hive more easily.
However there is no research (that i know of) to support that having an open floor will help prevent any viruses, this is just my belief.

 

[beekeepershens]

I always understood that varroa can climb back in if you do not have a good gap beneath your open mesh floor, you are inviting the live ones that get groomed off to return by leaving the inspection board in. also bees check out the board by popping in at the back, so again any varroa there that is not dead will hop back on the bee, keep the boards out when not using them for monitoring

 

[North End Bees]

They cannot take wax from one pace and put it somewhere else. If anyone knows otherwise then please correct me.

You'll find out if you leave a frame of foundation in the brood box at a time when conditions aren't right for drawing.
After some little while you'll come back to find it nibbled with little holes (or even quite big holes) where the bees have 'recycled' the wax if they find a need for some elsewhere. They know it's much more efficient than making new, especially in cool weather.

 

[Curly green finger's]

They will even use old wax to make qcs.
I've also observed nibbled frames of wax in the hive.
If they do it with propolis why not wax, it seems logical to me, expecially if it's colder or there is no real Nectar flow.

 

[Angry_Mob]

I'm fairly certain I read somewhere that someone gave their bees bits of coloured candle wax; a while later the foundation had speckles of the coloured wax through out it.