# Bottom Screen



## Tim Hall (Sep 14, 2007)

My screened bottoms are stapled on permanently since I didn't want any fussy moving parts. What I plan to do is simply place a strip of canvas over my screens (inside the hive) to eliminate draft. This is what the beek I learned from does (with Langs), and it seems to work just fine. But then again our winters are probably a little warmer down here.

Into yoga?


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## JOHNYOGA2 (Sep 30, 2008)

Hi Tim;
I was thinking of the wooden covering for the screen exactly because of the winters here. I was thinking that three 6" removable wooden panels would allow 18" of bottom ventilation in addition to access for the placement of sticky sheets for mite counts in the spring and fall.
I've been a yoga instructor for the past 10 years. Into natural foods/self sufficiency. You can grow/raise almost anything, but "sweet" is problematic. So I'm interested in learning to keep bees, and the more natural, and more simple, the better. TBH seem like a perfect idea.
John


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## Tim Hall (Sep 14, 2007)

I've looked at several methods of employing a removable screen and bottom board. What I finally settled on was a permanently screened bottom with a routed groove just below so I could pop in and out sections of corruplast (which I no longer plan to use). But I also opted to place my entrance just above the screen so the bees would have an easier time with housekeeping, since I can't remove the screen to clean it myself. That said, I think Michael Bush's preference for the top entrance is simple and elegant. The trick is to making everything else simple and elegant. The bees probably don't care either way - it's more a matter of how much you want to be fussing with the hive body.

I think the next hive I build will probably have no bottom or entrance at all, but rather a narrower opening at the bottom where the sloped sides (Kenyan) converge. Hopefully the bees will over-winter well without any manipulations. This seems to be the ultimate in simplicity.

Yeah I'm a gardener, sprouter, fermentor, and of course I'm fascinated with what might come from the hive. Been a student of Hatha yoga for the past year, and have just really started to take the practice home. FYI, koji/amazake is another possibility for getting "sweet," but that's a whole other time-consuming endeavor.

Shanti


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## JOHNYOGA2 (Sep 30, 2008)

Namaste' Tim!
The eventual goal is to go off the grid, maybe someplace third world. The top bar hive just seems so practically suited to sustainable living (especially in a third world location). Now seems like a great time to practice. Failure in my backyard while I try to figure out what I'm doing, is not nearly as devastating as it would be if I were dependent on the honey. The idea being to have fewer problems instead of more. I did build a hive this weekend. I used a fixed bottom screen. All the lumber was scrap from other projects. So my total expense was for the cost of the screen and that cost less then $10, and will give me screening for several more hives. Since I was just "playing" I made two enterances, one low and one top. The top enterance was easier, so that will be the way I go in the future. I'll plug the lower enterance on this hive.


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## Tim Hall (Sep 14, 2007)

*Going off-topic*

Haha...you know I killed my TV about a year ago. Haven't missed it for a moment. My internet at home has been down due to hardware problems. Don't miss not having email or internet when it's time to leave the office either. Occasionally I will watch movies on my computer, but a recent physical failure (on a very expensive, robust, server-type hard-drive mind you) has eliminated that little escape. And I can't say I miss it either.

I have two ceiling lights and one floor lamp in my bedroom. The floor lamp sits in front of a wall hanging I bought in Rajasthan (my ex-wife lived in India for eight years), which has little mirrors embroidered into it, and it casts little reflections all over the ceiling above my bed. A few days ago one of the ceiling lights burned out. Two days later my kitchen light burned out. The very next day the second ceiling light in my bedroom burned out.

So as I was lying in bed staring up at the "stars" on my ceiling one night, it occurred to me maybe it's time to just turn it all off. Best wishes for your search.


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## JOHNYOGA2 (Sep 30, 2008)

I know the very type cloth your talking about. The little mirrors are to reflect the "evil eye", I'm told. Or, at least, that's the story the tourists get. Spent time in India myself, Rishikesh. I understand they have a bee culture there also. Wasn't interested in bees when last I was there, but now it would be interesting to see how they did things. I'm suspecting more along the lines of top bar/ hollow log then formal hives, but I've got nothing to base that on except a certain respect for the Indian way of making things work. Stayed at a four star hotel near Delhi. Big mirror in the bathroom. Big ornate molding around it. Molding passed behind the sink at the level of the facuets. Molding would prevent the faucets from turning. Solution: cut out that section of the molding!! Gotta love it!


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## Tim Hall (Sep 14, 2007)

Yes, everything in India works, just not always the way we've come to expect it.


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## JOHNYOGA2 (Sep 30, 2008)

Tim,
You say you do fermentation. Lacto-Fermentation ala Sally Fallon's "Nurishing Traditions"?


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## Tim Hall (Sep 14, 2007)

I have not yet read Fallon's book, but I'm familiar with her work by way of other authors. My biggest influence has been Sandor Ellix Katz's books "Wild Fermentation" and "The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved." I have various other texts on meadmaking, brewing, yeast culture, and legume/grain ferments. I've experimented with lacto-fermented vegetables, miso, tempeh, mead, wine, etc. My neighbor, and very good friend, got into homebrewing beer after I taught him how to make kimchi and introduced him to Katz's books. Right now I have 50 pounds of mesquite bean pods, which I wild-harvested, sitting in my living room...they await some form of fermentation/enzymatic process.

Edit:

A somewhat embarrassing note: I recently discovered I have the most number of posts out of all users on Katz's fermentation forum, which just came online a couple months ago. http://www.wildfermentation.com/forum/


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## JOHNYOGA2 (Sep 30, 2008)

Thanks Tim!
Another forum...Spent the morning there! Between here, and the Backyard Chicken Forum, and the Wild Fermentation Forum, I'll never get anything done!


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## Aram (May 9, 2006)

*But Y?*



JOHNYOGA2 said:


> Namaste' Tim!
> The eventual goal is to go off the grid, ...
> The idea being to have fewer problems instead of more...


If simplicity is what you are after why waste your time counting mites? I never did and if I ever will I wouldn't know what to do with the results. I will not treat my bees with pesticides no matter what, so finding mites is meaningless. I'm new at this but I have not lost one hive to mites in three years (bears, yes .) Try to find a local breeder who developed robust bees for your area (survivors without chemicals) and start with three four hives as winter insurance. In a couple of years you'll have a dozen hives and more honey than your family and friends can use.
If you want to make a living from it, though... that's another story.
Now I'm off to check out the wildfermentation forum 
Aram


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## JOHNYOGA2 (Sep 30, 2008)

Thanks Aram,
Yes I understand what you're saying. I don't have any desire to treat the bees with any kind of chemical but I sort of view the hive as a responsibility. If they were heavily infested I'd want to try a sugar dump, but then I'm just Type A personality enough to want to get some idea whether that treatment worked. And if that didn't work, well I wouldn't rule out a chemical treatment. I would just really rather not. I understand my chances improve a great deal with TBH's small cell size. Since building a screen into the hive is really not difficult, I'm going to opt for the most versatility, I think. It will also allow me to open the bottom up for ventilation in the summer where we can easily get to 95 degrees. That might give the bugs less stress.


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