I am not seeing ANY honey in my Flow Hive

Beekeeping - Basics
61

Hi Sally, I have one suggestion. You could move 2 fully sealed brood frames up to the center of the flow super after removing two of the flow frames. Move the remaining flow frames closer to the brood frames, leaving gaps on the sides. Replace the brood frames with new frames, in a checker board fashion. The bees will most likely replace the emerging bees with honey & could start on the adjacent flow frames in the process & get the ball rolling on the flow frames. However that all depends on how much honey is about.

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62

Thanks! I might try that as long as I can see the queen to be sure I don’t put her in the flow frame - I am using an excluder. I have another question, is there a reason I should take 2 frames of capped brood instead of just 1?

63

Hi Sally, one would also work, I think. Yeah just make sure that you don’t include the queen.

I read your profile, to see your location & noted that you suspect that your colony could be Africanized. Use plenty of smoke & see if you can manage that task. If not, you might need to consider re-queening the hive. I have had some cranky hives in the past, where you couldn’t do a task like that without needing some serious protection. This is in Australia, where I don’t think we have Africanized bees. Sometimes I wonder.

64

There just may not be enough nectar for the bees to make any honey in SoCal. I have no idea, personally - but reading what others write from your corner of the country, it is probably environmental reasons, assuming the hive is healthy and would otherwise be productive.

Do you have other hives or locals that you can use to assess the nectar situation?

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I did finish my first comment with “that all depends on how much honey is about”. I should have also mentioned the strength of the workforce. I agree to check with other locals.

66

Good idea, and that you put honey in there, rather than sugar syrup - just be mindful of adulterated ‘honey’ from stores or even raw honey from another apiary, in case of disease. Before you try Jeff’s tip, do check with others in your region, like @Dawn_SD and @claire_c (both are in San Diego but could speak to the current nectar situation near you than I can!)

Meanwhile, how does the comb in the feeder look? If there’s a dearth they will prob have picked it clean. In that case you may not be able to use the Flow super this season.