The nights are cool enough where I am in Nebraska (USA) that I leave mine in.
Hello, I just noticed that my bees are escaping through the bottom screen in my Flow Hive. I think my hive is being robbed so I reduced the entrance. Now there are many bees on the bottom screen trying to find a way out and quite a few are succeeding. Do I need to replace my bottom board? Please help. -Ian
OK, so I have no idea where in the world you are, because you havenât completed your profile (hint, hint!)
I will try to help, but the advice is somewhat linked to your climate. I found that the gaps in the Flow hive screened bottom board mesh could be distorted on arrival, and bees can certainly get through it. The easiest way to solve that is to put the plastic corflute slider into the upper slot. the first time you do it, you will probably kill bees. After that, they will treat it as a solid bottom board, and you will be fine.
There are other options, but they are more complicated, and their practicality for you will depend on where in the world you are located. 
I have a recently delivered screened bottom in my yard at the moment & it looks perfect. I HUGE improvement on the ones I saw earlier this year. Looks live theyâve sorted that one out.
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I live in Berkeley, CA which is much like San Francisco climate-wise (rarely below 40ÂșF, rarely above 80ÂșF). More detail: Climate Berkeley - California and Weather averages Berkeley
Just in case overheating might be an issue with a small bottom entrance and a sealed bottom board (iâve sealed it) Iâve inserted two-2 pence coins under the rear of the roof to increase ventilation and circulation.
Is Flow Hive offering replacements for these first-generation bottom boards?
If you look a bit further back in the thread Flow did replace my bottom board.
Good luck,
O
It shouldnât be an issue, depending on how big your entrance is. I am down the coast from you in San Diego, and my Flow hive bees have been fine all summer with a 5 inch entrance and the SBB closed with the slider in the top position.
Flow have replaced SBBs, but you can actually fix it yourself. You have to take the hive apart, so that you can straighten the wires in the SBB using a dinner fork. It isnât hard to do, but it is a nuisance once you have bees in the hive.
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I will also look at this thank you for the information and discussion.
How often are beeks replacing the flannel backed table cloth, the setup as Ceder has shown in his videos.
No idea, I donât have a beetle problem.
Good luck,
O
I have had problems with bees getting through screen, its a steel screen, I will try to measure it, my new uninstalled hive has a screen with 7 squares to the inch, 3.18mmID
I am moving back to solid bottom boards. Too much problem with ants nesting below the screen, plus some wax moths too. I like the concept of the screen, but my bees seem to prefer solid.
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I will swap the SBBâs over on the weekend, I like the idea of the table cloth, but last week I had heaps of bees stuck to it, carpet of bees, I saved a few but most carked it. sad., as a newbie I was a bit lost till I read this posting, this Forum is great.
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Is it stainless steel? Or plain steel? Do you worry about corrosion or rust?
Hi Pete,
its stainless, wrote to Flow this morning after pulling plastic out, lots of bees under screen again, mild steel would rust quickly here, so stainless is better.
I can only assume my bees were getting through this steel mesh!!! or coming in around the back, I have a camera set up today, if they are sneaking in the back I will block it with a piece of flyscreen .
There were others that had bees wriggling thru the screen on the bottom board. I was one of them and ended up moving the wax board into the top position. If you donât fix the screen and block the back the bees might not get back thru the mesh and will die. Do a search on this site for âbottom board and screenâ and you will see how others handled the problem.
Flow hive will replace the bottom board. At least they did for me.
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my bees do this- I have the coreflute in the bottom slot and quite a few bees seem to spend the day hanging around in that space. I was also thinking of blocking it- but then I thought- why? It actually seems like it may be a good thing. If it is blocked that space creates a void where the bees cannot go. Debris build up and wax moth, etc can find a home out of reach of the bees but supplied with food, etc. If the bees can access it- I think they tend to keep it clean just as inside the hive. So for now I have decided to leave it alone- it doesnât seem to matter that bees hang out there. A local beekeeper told me the worst thing in a hive is dead space where bees cannot go- these spaces allow ants, moths and beetles to get a foothold into the hive.
One thing though: I am running my hive with no upper ventilation- my idea is to have good ventilation at the bottom but none at the top- this follows on from the ideas in this article:
if you have upper ventilation you may want to cover that lower gap to reduce any chimney affectâŠ
Also this week it has been very hot and quite a few bees were standing along the open edge of that space fanning their wings to ventilate the hive- which also seems like a good thing to me.
If you do block it- I suggest that every week or two you pull out the coreflute and check for wax moth larvae- and clean the board.
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Well my second screen bottom board had bees coming and going through the mesh. On inspection I found pieces of bees, so they have been getting caught and dyingâŠnot good. Being this is a continual problem I have taken the coreflute, trimmed it and put it on top of the screen. Essentially I have a solid bottom. If I were to use a screen bottom board again it would be welded or soldered screen so the wires canât move.
O
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