Pursuing the Screened Bottom Board

x

Building a better screened bottom board is one of those elusive things that seem simple, but just gets more complex the longer you work on it. A basic one is easy, I have built plenty. And I have gone through a whole series of design ideas, and hundreds- easily- of drawings trying to figure out the best way to put one together. Its one of the things one actually can do, to help one's hives. And although i have used screened boards a long time- I don't actually know if they are a good idea. They help one to count mites, but they, in themselves, don't decrease mites, and in fact, may increase them. Its possibly a misguided pursuit- and the old style might be better.

Setting that possibility aside- I have tried out a lot of styles. And one plus for all of them, is that, being screened, they don't collect dampness. That's a plus, rain that gets driven in, drops down to the mite board, and drains off. 

Here are a few drawings of board ideas- and although not an obsession- I could easily show a hundred more, mostly drawn while sitting at our local bar after a long day- but still, working out the problem of how to make something durable, efficient, and effective. After years of doing this- I think I have found a design that I like- and I will show that in a later blog entry. Of course, it needs testing too. but I just built 10 of these to switch out in hives, and I think they will be keepers.

Some drawings:

And here is the latest design in production. More joinery than a person might want to do- but it is simple- and the Japanese saw and its joinery isn't essential to the design (but allows less end grain exposure). I'll make some drawings for this later and a description of how to build one.