How To Build A Screen Bottom Board

Any mites that fell through the screen to the ground would not make it back.
How to build a screen bottom board. The screened bottom board s overall length and width should match the overall length and width of the standard bottom board specified for these different hive designs. Next staple a thin piece of metal or wood to the front of the screen and screw the 3 pieces of wood from section 2 to the frame. Use must use 8 because it is small enough to prevent your bees from going through these holes. This allows the screen to catch mites and other stuff that doesn t belong in the hives.
Screened bottom boards gained popularity among beekeepers during the influx of varroa mites. Taking mite counts with screen bottom boards. A screened bottom board is constructed from 1x4 pine and consists of a frame supported by two side rails figure 2. These build it yourself plans are sized for the langstroth beehive.
With some adjustment to these measurements you can scale and modify this design to work with the warré hive the british national hive or even the nuc hive. An 8 2x4 makes 4 side rails or two bottom boards. I start by cross cutting my material to length. It s a two part design that can be used either as a solid bottom board or as a screened bottom board with mite collection tray.
Cut the 2x4 into 23 pieces. Staple it to your frame. I had seen a bottom board similar to this on the university of guelph s beekeeping videos on youtube but couldn t find instructions to build them anywhere. The side rails are from 2x4 stock.
Screened bottoms that are left open to the ground also eliminate the need to clean out the bits of pollen beeswax and propolis which along with the occasional mite and other hive debris can build up over time underneath the screen. Ipm screen bottom board plans 2 page pdf file. The opening of the frame is covered by 8 hardware cloth 8 squares to the inch which allows the natural mite fall to pass through and away from the bees coming and going. This is a simple screened bottom board made from stock material and a tablesaw.
If we had purchased these online we would have had to pay about 12 00 a piece plus shipping plus he has extra supplies remaining for future bottom boards. In addition you need 1x4 at least 60 long. Cut the 1x4 into 14 3 4 pieces at least four.