Comb on bottom of flow hive

I have excessive comb between the queen excluder and the bottom go the flow hives.
So much so it makes it very difficult to move the flow hive to look under neath.

Is this normal?

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This can happen, trim it off on your next inspection, no harm done. I had a lot of comb today underneath the brood frames which turned out to be all drones, if yours is above the queen excluder it will be honey and nectar.

Cut it out and crush it into a seive. You will get a SMALL harvest :grinning:

Cheers
Rob.

Its been 2 weeks that I cut all the wax between the queen excluder and the bottom of the flow hives and the little buggers done it again.

This time will have to cut between the super and brood box as am unable to get a flow hive out.
Is it really necessary to be inspecting the brood box regularly?

Or should I be looking at making a spacer to make the gap bigger between the the excluder and the flow hive?

Hey, Yep it is pretty important. I get into the brood box at least once per month. I have a single brood so its necessary at this time of the year to be pulling honey frames out of the brood box whilst inspecting for disease and moving them up to the Super then replacing with empty frames or foundation. Bees making comb between the boxes is a regularly thing and will differ depending on your bees, I have the same issue, just use the hive tool to scrape it off.

Personally, I wouldn’t bother, there are bee gaps to consider and you will mostly likely find that they will only build more comb as a bridge between the boxes.

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How would you move a frame from the brood to the super if the super is full of flow frames in the modified box???

you can’t.

possibly- you could add another super on top of the flow frames and place it there. Or use it to start or boost other hives. Or harvest it- for wax and honey.

After the first year, if you only run a single brood box you will need another super for Spring Management. I leave my Flow frames on over winter, the bees use it as their winter stores but come spring I under-super the Flow box with another box to allow the rotation of brood frames and the moving up of honey to create space for the queen to lay and the colony to grow. This is something you will need to consider. If you run a double brood system then you will do something similar by rotating frames throughout your two brood boxes. For me, come December I will swap the super for the Flow (so the Flow is the second box). Hope this is not too confusing.

Prior to Spring Management - Top box is the Flow Super

New super with drawn comb and foundation frames are inserted above the queen excluder in between brood anf Flow super.

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If you make that gap larger with a spacer you will wind up with more cross comb, not less. How much space between the excluder and the bottom of the flow frames are you talking about?

I finally managed to get the super off and then had to scrape wax off the excluder .
There is about 15-20mm gap.

The super is a standard Langstroth and modified as per specs.

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