# Switch to Solid Bottom Board?



## Eikel (Mar 12, 2014)

Obviously it's a personal choice but I've run Solid BBs without a problem. The only reason I would consider switching to screened is to help combat shb.


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## Fivej (Apr 4, 2016)

Personal choice and highly debated. I was persuaded by Enj on here to use both. This gives you the best of both worlds. Run screened at the top and solid at the bottom. That way you can use a tray and/or a sticky board to monitor mites and debris, yet it can be closed up in the back. Some use boards, I use foam rubber. In the winter, I fill the void with foam board to close it up good and provide some insulation at the bottom. J


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## cbay (Mar 27, 2017)

Fivej said:


> In the winter, I fill the void with foam board to close it up good and provide some insulation at the bottom. J


Sounds like a good idea, i assumed the shb would diminish as cold weather set in but still was curious if they could be a problem in the hive without the oil tray. being new i wasn't sure.


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## kaizen (Mar 20, 2015)

my first year I ran screened bottom boards. realized I was just too lazy to keep changing out the collection board and also had issues with the plug getting stuck so I just changed to solid. I tried that foam in winter thing and I just didn't build them to make it easy so it was also a pain


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## Greeny (Jun 27, 2016)

I'm in my first year and started with screened BB. Bees kept squeezing into the space under the screen and dying. I wasn't getting much brood in the bottom of frames just above the screen. Read a bunch of the debates in threads here. We had some really hot spells this summer and I removed the plastic inserts to ventilate, and a LOT of bees clustered on the hive underside, outside the screen. Don't know if they were confused, trying to block off airflow, just hanging out, liking it, hating it..... I was confused.
I switched over to solid BB, and immediately saw more brood at the bottom of frames in the bottom box. (Still see some unused space there though.) Hot days now I have a lot more bearding, but that doesn't seem to be a bad thing and it's much less than the under screen clustering. Overall, they seem able to deal with the heat and a solid bottom just fine, and I'm confident the solid bottom will be better for cold spells. I'll see what happens this winter!


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Have some sbb's. Have only actually put a sticky board or tray in one. Discovered real quickly that I'm too lazy to deal with using an sbb correctly. Had to compare. Put me down for the solid bottom camp.


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## Skunkape71 (Oct 14, 2014)

I started out with SBB... I'm solid bottom these days.. To each their own, but I believe the bees can do a much better job of regulating their temps than I can. Just my 2 cents.


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## dudelt (Mar 18, 2013)

My only use for a SBB is to monitor the mite drop after a treatment and only on a few hives. When used outside of treatment times, the few mites that do fall through don't make enough of a dent in the population to make it worthwhile and you still need to treat. I also find that the bees avoid using the bottom of the frames closest to it even with the slide in. I never take the slide out except to clean it off and check the mite drop. Come this time of year, I remove them all and use only solid bottoms for the winter. All in all, I believe they are more of a pain in the *** to use than they are worth.


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## JoshuaW (Feb 2, 2015)

my colonies on sbb built up slower in the spring; switched them over to solids and they took off. Solids for me. I monitor with an alcohol wash after mite treatments.


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## usmcpowerman (Aug 25, 2017)

Well I went ahead and went with a screened bottom board but went with one where I can have a piece of plastic board stud underneath and plan on keeping it closed all the time. Still think when I set up a couple new hives in the spring might go with solid bottoms so I can kinda compare my hives and see what seems to work best


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## Dave1958 (Mar 25, 2013)

Only reason to use SBB is ventilation for moisture. Bees respire a lot of water vapor with cluster, eating, and condensation. The water has to go somewhere. Cold won't kill your bees getting wet will. So if you use solid boards make sure they can drain out the front or have a small hole in the back to drain water


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## appalachianoutdoors (May 16, 2015)

I trying a few ScBBs and pretty quickly went back to SBBs for most of the reasons mentioned above.


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## carlinmo (Jun 6, 2010)

There is a compromise. 

I now build solid bottom boards but I use a hole saw to drill a 3 1/2" hole towards the back of the board. I cover the hole with #8 screen. I place two cleats underneath the bottom board so that I can slide in a board to close down the hole as much as desired in winter. I use vent boxes and middle entrances on my hives year round for ventilation.

Carl Korschgen


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## Bdfarmer555 (Oct 7, 2015)

carlinmo said:


> There is a compromise.
> 
> I now build solid bottom boards but I use a hole saw to drill a 3 1/2" hole towards the back of the board. I cover the hole with #8 screen. I place two cleats underneath the bottom board so that I can slide in a board to close down the hole as much as desired in winter. I use vent boxes and middle entrances on my hives year round for ventilation.


Did this too. Stapled my screen to the top of the board(inside the hive). Bees couldn't clean dropped pollen and other trash where the screen overlapped. Led to a massive amount of shb larvae. Massive. So I'd advise to be sure and put your screen on the bottom of the board.


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