Stainless Steel Mesh for Bottom Boards - Ventilation & Beetle Control
Sizing Recommendation
Select your height & weight to see your recommended size.
Note: If you’re between sizes, we recommend sizing up.
Rust-proof woven mesh for screened bottom boards, sized to keep bees in and pests out
Every beekeeper reaches the point where a solid floor is working against them. In an Australian summer a closed bottom board traps heat, and a colony that cannot breathe spends the hottest part of the day fanning instead of foraging. A screened floor fixes that, and the screen is the part that matters. This is the stainless steel mesh that makes a mesh bottom board actually work.
The weave is open enough that small hive beetles and varroa mites drop straight through to the tray below, yet tight enough that bees stay where they belong. Because it is stainless steel rather than galvanised, it shrugs off the moisture inside a hive and will not rust out the way cheaper wire does.
Ventilation that keeps the colony cool
Air moves freely up through the mesh from below, pulling heat out of the brood box on a hot day. The bees spend less energy cooling the hive and more building comb and raising brood, which is exactly what you want through a long summer. A mesh bottom board runs cooler than a solid floor every time the temperature climbs.
Small hive beetle control built in
Beetles knocked off the comb fall through the mesh and onto the tray underneath, where they cannot climb back up. Add a little diatomaceous earth to that tray and the floor becomes a working beetle trap rather than just a screen.
Varroa monitoring made simple
When you need to check mite load, mites that drop through the stainless steel mesh land where you can count them over a day or two. No guesswork, just a clear count off the tray below.
Cut to fit your boards
The mesh is supplied as a flat sheet, so you can cut and fix this bottom board mesh to suit the floors you already run, whether you are building new boards or replacing a screen that has seen better days. Because it is stainless, the cut edges will not rust where the wire is exposed.
Specifications
- Material: 304 stainless steel woven wire mesh, rust-resistant
- Wire thickness: 1 mm
- Hole size: 3.3 mm openings (approx. #8 mesh, the beekeeping standard
- Weave: Approx. #8 mesh (around 3 mm openings), the beekeeping standard
- Application: Screened bottom boards, ventilation, beetle and varroa control
- Format: Flat sheet, cut to size as needed
