The slatted rack between floor and frames gets a mention in Sims Sixty Years with Bees and some US videos recommend their use, with various (I have to say unsubstantiated) merits being suggested. The one I have just watched shows the beekeeper sublimating oxalic without any form of respirator, so make of that what you will.
I can’t say I have ever tried them, but I can’t see they can do any harm either. I have noticed the disadvantage of keeping more hives is that it can mean you can become more resistant to buying experimental kit or trying more time consuming experimental hive management, as the multiplication factor kicks in. Maybe it’s just me.
Once you have numbers there is a practical and financial drive to simplify and strip back. Maybe something gets lost along the way? I have always wondered if 4 hives or thereabouts is perhaps the most enjoyable and experimental number as a hobbyist? It’s all too easy to think more is necessarily better.
I can’t say I have ever tried them, but I can’t see they can do any harm either. I have noticed the disadvantage of keeping more hives is that it can mean you can become more resistant to buying experimental kit or trying more time consuming experimental hive management, as the multiplication factor kicks in. Maybe it’s just me.
Once you have numbers there is a practical and financial drive to simplify and strip back. Maybe something gets lost along the way? I have always wondered if 4 hives or thereabouts is perhaps the most enjoyable and experimental number as a hobbyist? It’s all too easy to think more is necessarily better.