Hello, with the increased numbers of small hive bettles this summer I have been renewing the felt table cloth on the bottom corflute weekly, each week it has a large number of SHB stuck in it, I have counted up to seventy. I usually check it every few days and kill the live ones and shake off the dead. I replaced it Thursday past and didn’t get to remove it until today, however I am unable to pull out the corflute. Has anyone had this? is it possible the bees have pulled the felt up through the base gause and put propolos on it?
Thanks.
Ian.
My next option is to put two pair of pliers on it and just pull like crazy and see what gives.
Thanks, I have found that the bees had in fact pulled the fibres of the tablecloth up into the mesh bottom board. It was a job to remove it and I may have damaged the mesh as there seemed to be alot of angry bees come greet me when I finally did get it out. here is what I found.
I have put the coreflute back in without the tablecloth but have another ready to go back in, its a very good way to reduce the SHB popluation in this hive at the moment. I may have to consider an alternative. I also found alot of them camped on the top groove also. This maybe a design flaw with the classic bottom board.
I seem to recall this was an issue with some of these - the hardware cloth/mesh would flex enough to create bee-sized openings. @Freebee2 or @Bianca can probably help.
do you mean they pulled the cloth up into the brood box?
Yes, the new and improved Flow base with removable pest tray is a much better design and much more effective at killing small hive beetle.
We did receive a few cases of the bees being able to fit through a batch of the earlier classic bases which could be happening for you if bees are coming through where you insert the core flute slider. Or the bees could have chewed a new entrance which has happened before also. I would recommend inspecting to have a better understanding of what is happening.
The FH2+ base and stand is available for sale on the Flow website which can be retrofitted to a Classic Flow Hive. Note also that a regular base with a pest tray that is designed for a Langstroth hive can also fit with a Flow Hive, you just need to choose the right size between 8 and 10 frame.
If the core flute is stuck, I find the best trick is using two plyers on either side and pulling it out evenly.
Hello Bianca, the cloth wasn’t pulled up into the brood box, rather the fibres were pulled up and this made the table cloth rise to the mesh. Yes, I did try to remove it with two pair of pliers however the table cloth, that is stuck onto the core fute with 5 strips of double sided tape came unstuck, I then had to get a long knife and slide it in between the mesh and table cloth while pulling it down and out. It was at this point that alot of bees come from the mesh area.
I do plan on getting another base for my hives. Still tossing up which is best.
thanks again.
Ian.
