These pics ought to show how the bottom of my hive is set up. Yes, we did cut out the bottom of the bottom board and tacked screen on.
You can see how my sticky board moves in and out.
I had the robber screen on from last spring for feral bee invasion. The weirdest thing with the ferals this last spring... they would come about a dozen at a time, some would go into the hive, some would land and die right there, freaked my bees out and the hive swarmed three times in ten days. Then I freaked out and got the screen, I love the screen.
The lid to this hive kit came with just the top and a lip on the front and back, none on the sides. We kept it that way until a couple of weeks ago and now hubby tacked on the sides, this is to avoid condensation.
The dive weights are from when we were mining the rich hills of California just about 40 minutes from where we live. No! we didn't get rich. Don't mine anymore because California banned dredging a couple of years ago. :'(