LESSON 104: Slatted Bottom Racks (217-427-2678 www.honeybeesoline.com)

Hello, we are David & Sheri Burns from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, beekeepers helping beekeepers. We are a family business and spend our time manufacturing beekeeping equipment, producing queens and holding classes on beekeeping, advance beekeeping, queen rearing and more.

These free lessons are a big hit within the beekeeping community. So, please help us pass this site on to other folks who would enjoy learning about beekeeping on a regular basis. These lessons can be sent right to your Email inbox–FREE. Sign up now!

QUEENS AVAILABLE TO BE SHIPPED TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY JUNE 7th and 8th. ORDER NOW BY CLICKING HERE These queens are marked and mated. We only ship UPS Overnight. If you were a queen, you’d want to be shipped overnight too. You can order online, or call Sheri on Monday after 8:30am. But remember when we sell out for the week, you’ll have to wait to the following week.

We are really excited about our two day queen rearing course. We offer one day courses, but two days allows us more individual time with each student to teach queen rearing basics. Join us as we still have room. The course is July 22nd – 23rd, 2011, 9am – 3pm each day. Click here to register.

Our Advance Beekeeping Course is coming up June Sat. June 18th, 2011, 9am – 3pm. Stop repeating the same mistakes year after year. We’ll take an in depth look at these topics: Queen Rearing, Swarm Management, Pests & Diseases, Seasonal Management and weather permitting, lots of time in the hives. Click here to register for our advance beekeeping course.

And on Saturday June 11th, I’ll be teaching a beekeeping course (Community Education course) at Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois. For more information on registration, Click on Beekeeping Course Information Here is Heartland’s Contact Info:

Heartland Community College
1500 W. Raab Road
Normal, IL 61761
(309) 268-8402
Email: Rebecca Rossi

Before our lesson today, let me tell you how much we enjoyed teaching queen rearing at the Arkansas Advance Beekeeping Workshop presented by the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. Sheri, little Christian and me enjoyed the beautiful setting.

I enjoyed working with Dr. Clarence Collison, Jon Zawislak, Ed Levi, and Yong Park. Topics included: Morphology of the Honey Bee, Honey Bee Bee-haviors Explained, Honey Bee Pheromones, Biology of Bee Breeding: Superorganism Genectics, Small Hive Beetle Management, Diseases of Bee Brood, Diseases of Adult Bees, Package Bee Production, Pollination: Biology & Contracts, Honey Plants, Marketing Your Hive Products and Honey: A Perfect Product. We also had hives set up for field work and more!

LESSON 104: SLATTED BOTTOM RACK

I’ve mentioned slatted bottom racks briefly in previous lessons, but I want to dedicate an entire lesson to this mysterious invention. When you look at it, you really aren’t sure what it is, how it works, or even how it fits on the hive. Just what is it good for?

We make these here at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, and we cannot keep them in stock. They are challenging to build with 15 different pieces.

If you look at it carefully, you’ll notice that on one side the slates are very close to top and if you flip it over there is a larger opening underneath.

So let’s find out what all the talk is about regarding slatted racks.

It fits on the top of a bottom board just below the bottom deep hive body. Carl Killion used a similar idea to allow space for bees and extra ventilation. C. C. Miller believed in the idea but he simply made 2” bottom boards but found that the bees would build comb on the bottom of the frames to fill the extra space provided. But with a false bottom (the slatted rack), the bees are tricked not to build comb.

People are always confused which way to place these on the hive because on one side the slats are close to the top and the other side they are a over an inch away. Place it on the hive with the slats as close as possible to the frames.

The slatted bottom rack is also thought to help reduce swarming by giving extra space for bees to hang out. Those who use the racks really believe in them, and use them on all their hive. Perhaps you should try one and test it for yourself to see if there is any difference.

Some claim that since the rack keeps the end of the frame 2 inches from the opening that the queen will lay to the bottom of the deep frames.

Click here to order a 10 Frame Slatted Rack.

Please remember to have a hive ready when you get that swarm call. We are selling our popular completely assembled and painted hive so, consider having one ready by clicking here. Don’t be fooled by catchy ads that show cheaper pricing. Compare apples to apples. Our hives have two coats of exterior latex (Valspar) paint, glued wooden frames, frame rests, plastic foundation that has been sprayed with bees wax in the US and our inner covers are not thin pieces of Masonite. Instead, our inner covers are made from 1/2 plywood and have 4 vent slots cut into the rails. Order your complete hive now!

Until next time….

David and Sheri Burns
14556 N 1020 E. Rd
Fairmount, IL 61841
(217) 427-2678