Adding the Flow Frames?

Flow Hive
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I have / had a weak hive that never built comb above the brood box and was afraid that empty box would make em freeze out this winter so I removed it. It was warm today (60) and no wind so I painted some wax on the flow frames and sprayed with sugar water and put it back but forgot to add the queen excluder. I read somewhere that some folks don’t believe queen excluders are necessary but can’t remember the reason they stated. Should I go back and add it or see what happens or what? They seem to be thriving now, Thankfully.

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I would have thought it is a little early to add a super of any sort. How did you decide to do it? I would take it off unless your brood box(es) are absolutely busting with bees. I probably won’t be adding mine until March or April, depending on what I find at the next few inspections.

Anyhow, that wasn’t your question. :blush: The theory with not using a queen excluder is that queens rarely cross a solid band of honey. If your brood box has a solid arc of honey above the brood in each frame, the queen may well not lay above that. There is also some evidence that queen excluders slow down bees from storing in supers, and damage the wings of the bees more rapidly. However, there are no absolutes, so if you want to be sure that the queen will not make a mess of your Flow super, it is a good idea to use a queen excluder.

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Maybe I shouldn’t have added it but the hive does seem busting at the seams and didn’t have anything above that brood box and I was just afraid they needed more room. anyways, we will see said the blind man.

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May be just fine then. Are you going to risk it without the queen excluder?

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I think I will but only because I doubt it will be too long before I do a full inspection. It was barely 60 out and I didn’t want to have it open long enough to do that today. I wish I had a 3rd set of flow frames for that nuc I have ordered but those things are too much money.

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There’s a couple of faqs about using a queen excluder: :bee:

https://www.honeyflow.com/faqs/will-the-queen-lay-eggs-in-the-flow-frames-do-i-need-a-queen-excluder/p/85#a1

https://www.honeyflow.com/faqs/will-the-queen-lay-eggs-in-the-flow-frames/p/107#a1

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