I just read a comment about a flow frame in a hive that was not fully closed and how it lead to the bees only working the closed part of the frame, and ignoring the open part. There are countless threads on here about beekeepers wanting to limit the space bees have to work in a flow super, to encourage the bees work a single frame or the like. There was a thread recently suggesting removing all but one flow frame, obviously leading to space for bees to build crazy comb. Weather this is really required or not, there may be other reasons for reducing the workable space in a flow super, like toward the end of the season when there is unlikely enough time for bees to fully cap a frame/super, but not yet wanting to take the super off. Normally you would end up with a few half capped frames and a lot of unripe honey.
The idea struck me - why not leave parts of the flow frames in the open position? You could close a single frame or just the front third or half of the frames, focusing the area you’d like the bees to work. Then the smaller frame would become fully capped sooner. Has anyone thought of this or tried this before? Would there be any other issues in doing this that I’m not seeing?
