Mesh

[Poly Hive]

I have bought from this company and the mesh is great.

www.themeshcompany.com

They specialise in small amounts. You can buy two screens for nat for £15 or 16 for £50.

PH

 

[Angry_Mob]

I have bought from this company and the mesh is great.

www.themeshcompany.com

They specialise in small amounts. You can buy two screens for nat for £15 or 16 for £50.

PH

I got some galvanised mesh earlier in the year from Simon the Beekeeper, ebay is £52 for 20 sheets delivered and off his website its £2.99 per sheet (plus delivery)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262524243580

https://www.simonthebeekeeper.co.uk...arroa-galvanized-mesh.html#product-infos-tabs

 

[sean-a]

Thinking of making some underfloor entrances this year before the wasps build up strength.
Any ideas on where to get the mesh from?
Are these still the best options?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I always buy off cuts from Thorne very cheaply in their sales. The mesh doesn’t have to be the whole floor. I put my entrance back half way

 

[Newbeeneil]

I think this is one of the cheapest around.
https://www.simonthebeekeeper.co.uk/hives-frames/10117-bs-national-varroa-mesh.html

 

[B+.]

I always buy off cuts from Thorne very cheaply in their sales. The mesh doesn’t have to be the whole floor. I put my entrance back half way

If you are keeping track of natural mite drop, it has to cover the footprint of the hive - otherwise you may only be monitoring part of the cluster

 

[Erichalfbee]

If you are keeping track of natural mite drop, it has to cover the footprint of the hive - otherwise you may only be monitoring part of the cluster

Or you do a sugar roll

 

[B+.]

Or you do a sugar roll

Yeah, but you'd have to wait until you could open colonies to do that. You can do a natural mite drop as soon as they've broken cluster - even on a sh*tty day like we've had most of this spring.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yeah, but you'd have to wait until you could open colonies to do that. You can do a natural mite drop as soon as they've broken cluster - even on a sh*tty day like we've had most of this spring.

I’m trying a solid floor over this next winter so I won’t have any choice

 

[Sayle]

I’m trying a solid floor over this next winter so I won’t have any choice

I ended up having a solid floor under the mesh (about 7cm down so the varroa can't climb back up easily) to preserve the internal humidity/environment of the hive, but I'll be keeping track of how the girls handle varroa this year. I'd be interested in seeing how much if at all them being able to maintain their preferred temperature and humidity with all the insulation depresses the varroa reproductive curve.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I ended up having a solid floor under the mesh (about 7cm down so the varroa can't climb back up easily)

Mesh floor has little, if any effect on the control of varroa anyway. That myth was just put about to convince people to try OMF - it just happened (completely coincidentally) that varroa came along at the same time as they were trying to push mesh floors so they quickly changed its name to varroa floor

 

[nantmoel]

Thinking of making some underfloor entrances this year before the wasps build up strength.
Any ideas on where to get the mesh from?
Are these still the best options?

Just made 10 and ordered Stainless Steel mesh, 16 pieces for £70.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I ended up having a solid floor under the mesh (about 7cm down so the varroa can't climb back up easily) to preserve the internal humidity/environment of the hive, but I'll be keeping track of how the girls handle varroa this year. I'd be interested in seeing how much if at all them being able to maintain their preferred temperature and humidity with all the insulation depresses the varroa reproductive curve.

Most of the varroa dropping are dead. The number of live ones climbing back up makes little difference to the infestation

 

[gmonag]

Using a mesh floor does let you see what is going on in the hive during the winter, without opening it. I leave the tray in and take a look at it once a week, then clean it. Reading the debris can show you a lot.

 

[oliver90owner]

I ended up having a solid floor under the mesh (about 7cm down so the varroa can't climb back up easily) to preserve the internal humidity/environment of the hive, but I'll be keeping track of how the girls handle varroa this year. I'd be interested in seeing how much if at all them being able to maintain their preferred temperature and humidity with all the insulation depresses the varroa reproductive curve.

I think the bees are perfectly able to control the hive humidity - they have been doing it for millenia! What makes you believe all the varroa fall through the mesh? OMFs have b.all to do with varroa - that is why they are not called anti-varroa floors, or some such marketing jargon/hype.

 

[Boston Bees]

I think the bees are perfectly able to control the hive humidity - they have been doing it for millenia!

Not with open mesh floors under them they haven't.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Not with open mesh floors under them they haven't.

no, a lot of the time they have much bigger voids. Got a wild colony at one of my apiaries which died out this spring - they (the same colony) had been there over five years before failing, they were in a hollow oak tree with a small entrance at the top end (well, a crack about six inches or so) and a void at the ground level that you an get your head and shoulders in to look up at the colony about six feet up.

 

[Boston Bees]

no, a lot of the time they have much bigger voids. Got a wild colony at one of my apiaries which died out this spring - they (the same colony) had been there over five years before failing, they were in a hollow oak tree with a small entrance at the top end (well, a crack about six inches or so) and a void at the ground level that you an get your head and shoulders in to look up at the colony about six feet up.

Yes, similar in chimneys I guess. But both have very different thermodynamics than an open mesh floor 3cm under the bottom of the combs though, with a stiff breeze blowing under it. I can't think of any wild colony I have seen that has chosen a situation like that. Or at least, it would seem to me to be something they would avoid if at all possible.

 

[Antipodes]

Yes, similar in chimneys I guess. But both have very different thermodynamics than an open mesh floor 3cm under the bottom of the combs though, with a stiff breeze blowing under it. I can't think of any wild colony I have seen that has chosen a situation like that. Or at least, it would seem to me to be something they would avoid if at all possible.

I don't use open mesh floors and wouldn't, but I know of a colony in suburban Melbourne up in an olive tree with lots of ventilation ...set itself up in the branches and about the size of a medicine ball. Why not at least go under some eaves or something? . It's been there since spring apparently.

I collected a nest from the spindly branches of a tree last year...the landowners only realised it was there when honeycomb appeared on the path underneath it and then they looked up...

 

[oliver90owner]

I had pictures of a colony in the corner of the brickwork on the outside of a window. They were there into the third season when I think wasps got them.

As long as there is no howling gale through the floor and out of gaping holes in the crown board, the bees will prevent airflow through the frames by clustering.

Warm air rises, so it is only at the cluster level that any problem may arise. I overwinter on 14 x 12 and have never had a problem with OMFs fully open in all but the coldest spells. I will say that my bait hives all had solid floors, mind. Nobody, who thinks about wintering bees, leaves their bees on totally open ground, or do they?