Bottomless Beekeeping (It's not about nude beekeeping) LOL!

[manowar422]

Some of you have probably seen this before, but the rookies will no doubt find it very interesting.

This guy sure has some different ideas about bee health.

http://www.beesource.com/pov/simon/bottomless2.htm

[Jerrymac]

Some of what was said in the article could be true. There is a bee hive I am going to remove from a pump house wall sometime when weather permits. The outside of the wall is corugated metal. That would be cold in winter weather. I'm pretty sure the bees started the comb building high up in the wall, leaving a good distance between it and the floor. The bees probably never get on the bottom. These bees have been there for 2 or 3 years. No medications, not feedings, no care given to them by anybody, yet they are a strong colony. The tempurature was up in the sixties the otherday when I went to see where these bees were, I placed my ear to the inside wall and from the humm of the bees I could tell there were a whole big mess of bees in there. They were flying out of three holes on the outside wall, none of which were closer than a foot from the bottom. It all appeared to be a very healthy colony.

Perhaps what Charles Martin Simon wrote has some merrit.

[Jay]

Some merit I'll give you.  I don't buy everything he's saying lock, stock and barrel.  The ants in his freezer are easy to explain. Ants lay down a pheremone trail where they are walking that other ants follow. Thus, when you see one ant at your picnic, invariably there are more to follow! I would say the wood tics following each others paths might be able to be explained in a similar fassion.  This business of bees following some trail in the air, however, to me, is tough to swallow. I know bees use pheremones to communicate in many varied ways, but come on folks, when the wind blows, everything in the air moves on to the next county. The idea of a permanant memory trail floating in the air is kind of tough to fathom. How does it stay there?  I do however, like this idea of bottomless hives. To me this is simply taking screened bottom boards to the next logical step. If some mites can get stuck on the screening or off the tack sheets once they have lost their tack or become full up, then why not eliminate the whole kit and kaboodle? All in all a very interesting article. He seems very pessimistic, that's too bad :(

[TwT]

i agree with jay on the bees following the wind thing but some of the big beekeepers here in Georgia have been almost open bottoms for awhile because of the SHB , they still use a screened bottom board but the screen is 1/4 inch screen and all it keeps out are varmits, they use this open hive idea with the same effects as SHB trap, the SHB larve will fall in throw the screen just like falling in a trap, when on the ground ,there time is numbered because of ants, starvation, weather, ect. they have other ways to take care of adult bettles.