Bottom Boards (045)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast · Oct 28, 2021 · 16m

Every kind of hive has some kind of bottom board. Typically, Langstroth type hives have a bottom board that is removable. Many are reversible, too. That is one side has a ridge going around three sides that is only 3/8th of an inch tall, leaving an opening so small in the front that a mouse should not be able to get into the hive. These are used this way in the winter. The other side of this bottom board has a ridge that is 3/4th of an inch tall, to be used in the summer for better ventilation and traffic control out front.

For awhile, bottom boards with a screen were common, developed to…