Don't just rely on the view from the end frames to ensure all cells are capped

No such thing as a silly question. If your bees are very gentle then you may be able to lift the lid and pull up a frame or two, be careful not to bump the box or squash any bees. Otherwise a puff or two under the lid to push them down then wait 30 seconds or so. No need to puff the entrance as they push them up into the Super.

Not silly at all, but you will find that unless the question has specifically to do with extraction that there is no difference between the flow hive and any other hive. So when you have a question in general, like this, you can look for information from all sorts of sources, they will all be valid ; -)

Better to puff them before they are mad. Once they are mad it’s usually too late for smoke.

3 Likes

3 posts were split to a new topic: My Flow Frames are hard to pull out

Great pictures - thanks for the posting. Have you harvested yet?

Thanks! Yes, I harvested 2 frames about one week after those photos were taken and got just under 6 kilos.

About 10 days after that I harvested the other four frames and got just over 12 kg! That was just before Christmas, so all my friends and family got honey for Christmas presents last year!

I harvested another 4 frames last week (early Jan) for another 12kg.

Harvesting has been so easy, calm and relaxing watching the honey flow out of that tube. Its funny when I look back at photos of the first ever harvest, I was dressed up in full beesuit but not a single bee was interested in what I was doing at the back of the hive. Now, I don’t wear a veil or anything to harvest and just save the beesuit for inspections.

2 Likes

A puff of smoke is advised for any inspection of any hive.

1 Like

Good report! How long did it take to harvest a full jar of honey?

Depends on how big a jar you use …Just having a giggle couldn’t resist :blush:

2 Likes

How long to drain a frame?

Actually, that is an interesting question…

I’m harvesting in a Sydney summer, so its pretty warm, usually in the 30s or high 20s at least and the honey is pretty runny.

Let’s say I was to open the complete length of the frame all at once, I would estimate that maybe 80 percent of the honey is out within the first 10min, however for the last 20 percent to drain out, it probably takes another 20-30 mins. So I just leave it and come back.

However, I’ve noticed that if I do open the entire length of the frame at once I get problem with the initial pressure being so great that the honey actually bursts out of the lower capped rows of the frames and runs internally down into the brood box and out the bottom of the hive onto the corflute.

So, to get around this, I only open the about a fifth of the frame length first, let the bulk of the honey run out a little, wait about 5 mins, open another fifth of the frame, wait another five mins and so forth until the total length of the frame is open. Then I just leave it for another 20-30min to completely drain.

Doing it this way takes longer (60+ mins per frame) but spills less honey.

I’m not sure if other people find this happens or my bees just don’t make strong caps? Its definitely capped - I’ve checked.

8 Likes

This is fantastic info, thank you so much for sharing!

Dawn

Not a bad problem to have :slightly_smiling:

That’s some great info ! It’s great to have feed from others experiences n issues !

Hi Oatkir. This is exactly what happened to me today. I drained two frames and cracked them all at once and I had a downpour of honey through my brood box and out the bottom of the hive. I ended up with very upset bees bearding out the front of the hive all afternoon. I had initially thought I’d perhaps not set the flow tube into its slot properly, but reading your post in wondering if this was my problem. Hmmm not 100% sure though.
Here’s a pic of the honey flowing out. Damn!

Hi All,

We designed the core flute slider to move to the upper slot so if there is dribbles from any frames they stay within the hive and the bees lick them up through the screened bottom board and re use the honey. Best to remember to move the slider to the upper slot before you harvest. Here is a how to harvest video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z54bL6kjyOI Perhaps we need to put out a “before you harvest” checklist.

Our experience is sometimes you get dribbles out of the Flow frames and sometimes you don’t. This depends on many factors such as: The viscosity of the honey which changes with honey types and temperature, how the bees have capped the comb and the slope you have on the hive. The more slope you have the faster the honey trough can clear and this means potentially less dribbles of honey from the Flow frames in the hive. This is more important with less viscous honeys.

Great to see some honey harvesting!

Please send any videos or pics to me at info@honeyflow.com, it’s really great to see.

Cedar

9 Likes

thanks @cedar!
I noticed my round caps were being propolused, which meant that any leakages from the frames were not going down the grooves on the back of the caps. The gap between the inside of the hive and the trough, where the honey is supposed to drain into the hive was also propolused heh.

will send you photos of my first harvest at the end of the month! cant wait!

Background:
We are in Victoria, so are working towards an autumn packdown.
I am a new beekeeper, this has been our first harvest.
We have a single deep brood box, and the flow super.
Our plan has been to extract the flow frames as they are ready, and replace 2 flow frames with 3 wired wax foundation langstroth frames, so as to allow the bees to fill those new frames as we move through autumn. Then to pack down to a single box, as is common in this area, I’ll be able to choose the best 8 frames from the 11 available for the bee brood box.
Our Experience
From 3 frames extracted we got only 4kg honey, which seemed low. I removed the 2 extracted flow frames from the hive the day after extraction. I was surprised to find that about 1/4+ of these frames were filled with honey. Even after opening the frames with the flow lever a second time, still some honey was not flowing out. Some honey was leaking to the bottom of the frames. After shining a torch up the channel were the flow lever is inserted, we could see that the cells had not remained in position vertically, some , perhaps under tension of the wax cappings, had moved back down a bit, perhaps enough to retain cell integrity and not release the honey.
Solution
We found that by leaving the flow lever in place in the frame while the honey flowed out, all the cells remained cracked open, and the frames drained fully. Unfortunately, since we only found this out after removing the flow frames from the hives, the bees won’t have time/ opportunity to clean up the lower channel before storage.
I plan to freeze the frames for 48 hours, then wrap and store over winter.
Others might find it useful to leave the lever in place through extraction to ensure all the honey is released. We will in future.

3 Likes

as I drain a few frames at a time I couln’t leave the tool in both frames. I do tend to leave it in one of the frames. However what I generally do when I crack the frame is I work the key in both sides of the slot- and the center- and a few times. I do the same when I re-set the frames after harvesting. This is just to ensure all cells are broken- and then all columns are re-set.

Another thing I noticed: sometimes a frame can be full but the cells at the end where the clear window is are not all full. sometimes there are bees in those cells whan it is time to to harvest. To stop them getting crushed or trapped in the works- I tap on the window with my finger nail to get their attention- then I insert the key and just jiggle it gently without fully turning it. this starts the cells moving and generally with a few wiggles all of the bees in cells will back out- and then you can turn the key completely!

3 Likes

Great suggestions. Thank you