Maxima Plastic Bottom Board - 10 frame
Maxima Plastic Bottom Board - 10 frame
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If you're looking for a premium, sturdy bottom board with a lifetime warranty, look no further! We worked with a manufacturer to develop this HillCo-exclusive product with host of great features, including:
- U/V resistant food-grade plastic; never rots and never needs painted
- Built-in entrance reducer, with mouse guard and vented screen for moving or blocking your bees in temporarily.
- Screen panel is removable, and can easily convert to a solid bottom (solid bottom panels coming soon)
- Built-in pollen trap option coming soon!
- Watch the video for more info
Lifetime warranty!
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I ordered 5 of these bottom boards and they arrived within 2 days! I like them a lot. Tired of replacing rotting wooden boards and trying to get the correct entrance reducer matched up. Also, no more water collecting at the entrance and worrying about mouse guards. I'm a little concerned the plastic may become "brittle" over time from the sun, rain, and snow but we'll see. My wooden boxes fit nicely on top and the tabs keep them securely in place. Now for HillCo's customer service... top notch! Two of the boards arrived damaged through the shipping process (no fault of HillCo). I emailed HillCo and the next day received an email from John Hill himself. Two days later replacements arrived. I'll continue to order from HillCo b/c they're honest and stand behind their product.
I liked the product overall, but noted that the one late nuc I placed on top of this failed and the queen and workers could not produce viable capped brood.
We had a plentiful supply of nectar (did feed as well) and pollen. What I suspect happened is that the tight teeth of the dropdown entrance reducer wiped off all the incoming pollen. No pollen, no bee bread or capable brood. I only found some 20 capped cells in that hive. Queen and foragers slowly starved to death by Winter as no replacements came in.
Hi Herb, thanks for the feedback, and I'm sorry that your experience wasn't positive. For what it's worth, we well over 1000 of these out in use, and I've been using on my own hives for the last couple seasons. I've never experienced or heard of this issue yet, but I'll be checking into it in the upcoming season! Have a great 2024!
I found the tabs to support a hive to be excellent as well as the overall design. That it is slanted to drain is a huge plus. Same for the versatility of the entrance guard and the future opening of plugs for drones and bees to avoid a plugged up pollen trap yet to be offered. The one improvement I can see is that another middle 'foot' be used underneath. There are only four corner feet and I question if that will support a heavily supered hive. I will fill some of these with a wooden plug to offer more support.
Have not put it use yet but looks very well made and should last a very long time.
This bottom board is diverse! Although I like solid bottoms I wanted to give this one a try. The bees seem to really like it. Not bearding like my other hives do. This hive also has the maxima top. Would love to try out the solid bottom insert when it becomes available. The only thing I would change is the enterance reducer. It is made of plastic but I think it would be better if it was stainless, or at least a thicker grade of plastic. It isn't warping yet but I could see that being a problem in the future with the hot sun. All in all a great product. I'll be getting more
