Hi. we are quite new to Beekeeping. We have the 7 frame flow hive 2+ our bees have taken to our hive very well. After two weeks the brood box was full so we added the super. Another 2ish weeks and the super was full! We harvested 1 full frame of honey and removed a full frame from the brood box of honey to make more room for brood. the frame we harvested was full again in a week. We have harvested 2 and a half frames again only a couple of days ago and it looks like the frames are nearly Full again. My question is because we are new too this it is going to start to come in cold in the next couple of months. It can get to maybe minus 3 at the coldest in July should we put a second brood box now to make room for the bees or should we harvest more honey as we have. Or any other suggestions. We aren’t looking to have any other hives for the time being and we don’t have anyone to give a split too. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Welcome to the forum, Jess.
You’re certainly having a great start to beekeeping. With most of the feral bees killed off by varroa, there’s little competition for the nectar flow, so many beekeepers are having a bumper season.
The winter population drops down quite a bit, therefore I recommend staying with one brood box and adding a super of foundation frames for the bee’s winter resources. Some people leave the Flow super on over winter, but the risk is that the honey could crystallise, complicating things in spring. Usually, an Ideal sized super is plenty, but you could use a deep so the frames can be used as drawn comb in the brood box later. They’re also good if you want to add cut comb to your honey product range.
You might hear stories of the queen being abandoned below the excluder as the cluster moves up to access the honey in the super. That can happen in climates where they have long cold winters and months of snow. In our mild, short winters, it’s not an issue. My bees forage in winter any days the temperature reaches 12-13°C, even if only for an hour or two.
Cheers,
Mike
Consider adding insulation in the roof. Most of the heat is lost there and the bees consume more honey to replace the lost heat. Insulation reduces the power bill.
Thanks so much for your help! I might need you to dumb it down for me a little lol. Still learning all the beekeeping wording. When you say adding a deep is that a normal size super? I was looking at the ideal but they are out of stock 
thanks for the insulation idea, what would you use? My husbands a builder so we probably have something lying around here we could use.
I have another question, not sure if you can help with but after we harvested two frames of honey yesterday I noticed two bees fighting on the ground under the hive. (I have googled the crap out of what it means and come up with some a few different things that could be happening). We have their water source close by too. I videoed them but can’t seem to upload it . My question is should I move the water away incase it is bringing other bees to our place. It has been super hot the last week at least 36 degrees for the last three or so days. I don’t think the hive is under attack. It’s seems very strong and there is a tonne of bees but then again I could be wrong and missed something. thanks
Hey Jess,
Yes, full depth frames and boxes are commonly called deeps. There’s a range of shorter Langstroth sizes; WSP - 3/4 depth originally made by Wyn Pender, half depth, called Ideals in Australia, similar to the American Shallow. Dimensions aren’t particularly standardised, typical of beekeeping.
For insulation, anything that’s not fibrous with the highest R rating. I like the double foil, bubble product, but you can use something like rock-wool stitched into a pillow slip like cover. Your husband will likely have something suitable.
A pair of bees fighting isn’t a concern. Disagreements happen, even at the pond. A thousand on the other hand… Your strong colony is unlikely to be attacked by robber bees, particularly when there’s a nectar flow on. You might see a robbing event in an extended dearth. It is a frantic battle that needs fast intervention such as closing the hive or fitting a robber screen. Minimise the risk by not open feeding or leaving wax or honey nearby or opening the hive too long, particularly in dearth conditions.
I prefer to keep water sources somewhere else in the yard. Definitely not your neighbour’s swimming pool, though. I have several birdbaths and ponds at least 15m from the hives. All of them are frequented by bees, but they do have their favourite water feature.
Mike