The Story Continues
Then I went to the bottom
The Foundation is Important. Originally, I used the standard mulit-layer setup under the brood box as shown in the above photos. There was a landing board, a solid bottom and a ventalated bottom, but there was no tray to count mites or view hive droppings. The solid bottom was impossible to access and clean without removal from the hive. First, I modifed the exiting components. I modified the standard pieces and added a groove to allow a sheet pan to slide in between the solid and ventalated bottoms. This “drawer” was difficult to add, so I started making my own individual base components which included the pull out tray. The gap between the landing board and the ventalated bottom became a water entrance point to the observation tray, which I addressed in later designs. The total height of these three pieces was nearly 6”.
What do you want in your back yard?
One
Piece--Four
Functions.
I
saw
a
one
piece
base
at
a
friend’s
apiary
which
used
a
plastic
mite
tray,
but
the
unit
as
a
whole
was
not
built
or
designed
well.
I
then
went
to
the
drawing
board
to
create
a
one
piece
base
which
served
the
function
of
the
four
conponents
I
had
originally
worked
with.
It
included
a
removable
solid
bottom,
a
removable
observation
tray,
and
had
the
landing
board
and
a
ventalated
bottom
built
in.
For
10
frame
boxes,
I
use
a
cookie sheet for the tray and the entire one piece base is only 3 ½” tall.
