My hive is made up of outer and inner covers, two hive boddies, screened bottom board and that all sits on a solid bottom board with aprrx 15" legs. My question is should I get rid of the solid bottom board, a lot of bees hang out in between the board and the screen making it hard to put sticky paper in to do a mite count and it also causes a HUGE problem if I do a sugar shake on them as it attracts every yellow jacket in the county to the sugar and then robbing and fighting. Not to mention that when the mites fall off a bunch of bees are back down there for the sugar and I am sure bringing the mites back in.
What should I do? It usualy gets cold here in the winter.