Slatted Racks

[40 Acre Bees]

I was reading the post about swarming and there is some information in there about slatted racks.  We are in Nova Scotia Canada and we can have some pretty long cold winters.  I was wondering what the people think of using slatted racks (pros & cons).  We only have four hives so the expense would not be to great.  What do you think.  Thanks in advance for your opinions.  40 Acre Bees

[Mikey N.C.]

40,
I thought that was very interesting my self, had never heard of slatted bottom shim,good question,waiting to read 

[rwlaw]

Let's see
Pros
Does keep the hive from swarming (reliving congestion in the brood nest)
Helps regulate hive temps ( the queen lays lower in the bottom frames and they can cool easier)
The bees are less likely to beard and suffer losses from wasp/hornet/bird predation
Dead air space in the winter so the cluster stays lower
Cons
Commercial slatted racks are good hiding spots for SHB's
If you want to find the queen for splitting purposes, she could be hiding in the ball of bees on the slats. Gotta shake the bees off into the boxes, put a Q excluder on and start over the next day (ask me how I know)

[Mikey N.C.]

So queen can go down into slatted bottom, kind of makes me wonder if bees felt to much draft ,they could regulate,by blocking slots with propilis?

[Mikey N.C.]

Where we use entrance reduced ( mouse guard ) 

[rwlaw]

Where we use entrance reduced ( mouse guard )

Us yankees have to worry more about cold air blowing up up our knickers than you Tar Heels  .
I ran slatted racks for a couple years, but I starting running for splits so my hives don't get that big enough to warrant running them. That's all I run is a mouse guard for draft reduction too.

[riverbee]

"Us yankees have to worry more about cold air blowing up up our knickers than you Tar Heels  "

what rwlaw said!.............
never used them, so can't give an honest opinion on them.........other than my own opinion.............i think for us yankees not a really good option and personally, just a new fangled thing for us to use and spend money on, just think, solid bottom boards have worked since............?
my belief is don't fix what ain't broke.............
with that said i don't live in the hot humid south, so may work for those in the south, up here, not so much maybe? we get pretty hot and humid, i don't find the need to use them.

slatted racks aren't going to prevent swarming, that's just my ho..........swarm prevention starts with the beekeeper irregardless of what equipment we use as beekeepers.

[rwlaw]

Your right about slatted racks not preventing swarming RB, my bad. I left out a key word, it "helps" prevent swarming.
 When I was using them I was running four hives for Ross rounds and was going on advice to crowd them for a sellable product, so I thought I'd better invest in some racks too. I couldn't believe the amount of bees that were hanging off the bottom of them at night (yes, I'll admit it, I'm a entrance peeper ). It's a good place for foragers to hang out without interfering with the brood nest IMO.

[riverbee]

"(yes, I'll admit it, I'm a entrance peeper )"

do tell!!!..............

[rwlaw]

Ya, sting therapy cured me of that obsession tho.

[Lburou]

I've tried slatted racks for three years.  I like to keep a breeder queen in a single hive body, even a five frame NUC box and the slatted rack gives opportunity for idle bees to have a place to hang about without swarming.  I like it for that purpose.  I like to overwinter a five frame NUC with slatted rack and medium super with frame feeder and honey frames, the slatted rack allows the NUC to build up enough to mostly fill an 8 frame hive body in early spring.  I like it for that too.  Certainly optional equipment, but useful if you have a special need. 

[Marty68]

i've always use slatted racks and haven't had a swarm yet.  lol yet but i build i my own slatted racks bottom boards feeding spacers. pretty much i build everything for the hive.

[40 Acre Bees]

Maybe Jen, should try these  slatted racks to at least try and slow the swarms down.............

[Mikey N.C.]

I see that it works, for a lot of purposes, my question is  , remember I'm a youngan,does the bottom bar from bottom of box a 3/4 " space,when ya add a solid bboard,that's  another 3/4" ? making  1 1/2 ", then if ya add a slatted rack then that makes 2 1/4" correct ?, so space under broad frames ,gives the scouts somewhere to stage for a little time ,instead of alerting (swarming ready) hive ? Very interesting  !

[tecumseh]

a rwlaw comment followed by > my comment...
Does keep the hive from swarming (reliving congestion in the brood nest) > I guess that is their main purpose but likely does not keep a hive from swarming if they decide to do so.
Helps regulate hive temps ( the queen lays lower in the bottom frames and they can cool easier) > this is really not about temperature but about light.
The bees are less likely to beard and suffer losses from wasp/hornet/bird predation > this may be their largest benefit since they create a maze for any prey to pass thru to gain access.
Dead air space in the winter so the cluster stays lower > dead air space has little to do with this since in a winter time mode the bees move upward into the honey cap.
Cons
Commercial slatted racks are good hiding spots for SHB's > likey yes and certainly not a minor consideration.
If you want to find the queen for splitting purposes, she could be hiding in the ball of bees on the slats. Gotta shake the bees off into the boxes, put a Q excluder on and start over the next day (ask me how I know) > my queens can show up anywhere including the outside of the box and sometimes on the ground.  it does sound like they would make locating the queen more difficult.

I do like your approach of listing the + and the - which imho no matter how great the idea there are some of both.

Likely only myself and Jack may remember cluster frames which were sold to do much the same thing as a slatted rack.

And as my old commercial mentor told me one time when I asked him about slatted rack his comments was....'worked after a fashion'.

[rwlaw]

"And as my old commercial mentor told me one time when I asked him about slatted rack his comments was....'worked after a fashion'."

I got about the same response from my mentor when I asked him about slatted racks. " Heard of em", which I interpreted as "just a another piece of fluff you don't need".