We are getting ready to put on a coat of wax on the flow frames so that they are more acceptable to the bees when we finally have an opportunity to add on the supers (our girls are a little slow to fill out the second brood box). While laying out the Flow Frames, I noticed that some of the wires weren’t wound as tight as others, so I took the time to go through each frame and make them match, basically four twists on the top and three on the bottom, which seemed to be the standard.
However, on the bottom of the frames, on the end opposite where the honey will be withdrawn, there are two notches for the wire to catch. All are on the bottom-most one, but I’m curious why the second notch is there and under what circumstances we would course the wire there? It’s not much of a difference - really just the diameter of the wire, but surely you had a reason for it?
Hi, I tried to look up your order to get an idea of which batch your Flow Frames are from for quality control.
But I couldn’t find an order under the email address you are using on this forum.
We did have an issue a while ago where some Flow Frames weren’t bing adjusted right. Cedar and Stu went to the factory and inspected Flow Frames, and got any tightened that weren’t right. This issue was supposed to be resolved now, so I’m wondering if your order is from a while ago, or new?
When we found out about the loose wires we also put a video up on the website so customers could resolved the problem without too many dramas - https://youtu.be/gbeOkXFSzgQ
I do not know about those notches sorry. Can you email us some pictures so that we can have a look and let you know - http://www.honeyflow.com/contact/p/3
When you email can you also send your order number or the email address you used when you first ordered so that we can see what batch your Flow Frames are for for quality control.
From Stu -
The second and third notches are there for tightening purposes as well. At the time of designing for the mold we thought the other notches would be sufficient to take up the slack.
Unfortunately there can be too much variation in the parts so twisting became the best way to adjust the tension. Of course, once the bees gum up all the little gaps the frames firm up anyway.