I’m going to be new to bee keeping this year, side hobby. I’m concerned that before I can purchase my flow hive system, it will be backlogged till too late in the season to start, so I’ve decided to order just a Flow Super and get the rest of the hive equipment else ware so I can get started on time.
My question is that I feel it would be better to have two deep 10 frame supers instead of one super like in the Complete Flow Hive. My reasoning:
Allows hive room to grow
Gives enough room so the queen doesn’t think to put brood in the flow frames (I don’t want to use the queen extruder since I hear it could be bad for the Workers)
Would this be practical and reasonable, or am I just overthinking it?
Edited: did a noob thing and said drones instead of workers
Hi @macasio14 Andrew, you could be over thinking it a bit. I use queen excluders & only one super for brood, the same as the flow team. You’ll find (as I do) with all good frames in the brood, the bees will build up really strong with just one super. I found with two supers a lot of frames don’t get used in the bottom one, leaving them vulnerable to SHB damage. This is my experience of keeping bees at Buderim in Qld. Australia.
@macasio14 The Flow super is 8 Frames width (6 Flow Frames) not 10 Frame Boxes which are (7 Flow Frames wide)
If you are buying 10 frame gear (Normal Langstroth size) you will not want the super box from Flow just the 7 Frames
If you stick with a Flow Super you will Need to buy 8 Frame Brood Boxes
PS @macasio14 Hi Andrew, to date I haven’t seen any evidence of anyone being more successful than the flow team with Flow hives. At least on this forum so far. So I reckon the way the flow team has their hive set up would be a good starting point.
The only time I have seen drones trying to get through excluders is when there is a dearth, the workers stop feeding them and they try to get to stores above. They get jammed and die.
But those same drones are out every day weather permits looking to mate so their purpose continues. Anyway, the drones in any particular hive have had no part in inseminating their queen.
The idea of working without an excluder, surely, is to allow the bees to create an optimal brood nest. There is nothing wrong with brood in honey supers unless you include it in your extraction.
Thank you for the response. I’m curious if this idea would be different in North America verses Australia. I’m located near La Crosse, WI, United States, and I do recall hearing Australia has different honey bees. I suspect the subject matter I posted would apply to most any honey bees, but I feel the need to ask.
Right. I need to learn these things as I have bought a flow hive from a beekeeper who has abandoned the idea. Considering ther weather in the UK and how often the bees make honey then eat it would it be best to put a normal super on top of the brood box THEN the flow frames. That way the bees would have their larder rather than be suddenly bereft if you had tapped the honey just before a three week rainy spell?
Sorry macasio14 for hijacking your thread.
Hi @macasio14 Andrew, your most welcome, your climate at WI is much different to where I live, however were talking about the same bees, European Honeybees. The way I see it, you’ll need to do things different to me during the winter. Your further N. than our most southern part. Two supers with good frames will certainly allow your bees to build up really strong. That might be the way to go. Just make sure they don’t swarm on you:) good luck with it, bye…PS Andrew, the NWNJBA have some great videos on Youtube, you might find helpful for your location, or you could lookout for a local beekeeping club. cheers.
I think it has everything to do with your climate. In the US the Northern states mostly run double deeps through the winter and supers on top of that in the flow. The central (between north and south) states run a deep and a shallow or a deep and a medium. The Southern states run one deep for the brood. A few people in the far North run two deeps and a shallow.