Hive Modification

Winter had taken it’s toll on my bees and me, but now spring is here and things are looking up. I decided last season that I needed to modify my hives. I just needed to come up with a way to do it. I want my Bee Thinking hives to have a screened bottom that can be closed during the colder months. I really like that option with the Gold Star Honeybees hives. After reading up about Varroa mites, I think that it’s a good option to help try to control them.

The challenge that I have is that the hive sits on a stand, so I am limited in how I alter them. I decided that I would just cut the bottom piece out between the stand. This leaves some space on each side where the bottom will stay solid. At least there will be a large area in the middle that will be screened, with the option of closing the bottom up during the off season.

We started with cutting the area of the bottom board that is between the stand. Once the bottom was cut off in the area between the stand, we stapled the screen on. After that was set we added brackets to the piece of the bottom that was removed and one large screw on each of the other sides. This will allow me to have the hives open during the warmer months and closed when it needs to be.

Luckily, the modifications were pretty easy to do. Now we just have to see if it benefits the bees. I am sure that having more ventilation in the summer will be nice for them. Now I am just awaiting their arrival.