I have only just put a wedge of wood in the door of my hive with a smaller opening in it for warmth and easier protection for the bees against robbers. I am confused about the core flute sheet I have in my flow hive which I moved from the bottom position to the top slot just before winter. The days here in Perth have been starting really cold but the days have been wonderful up to 23 degrees lately. So my question is - is all that ok or should I move the core flute down now its getting warmer or wait another few weeks for it to really warm up. And one more question - what is“a flow” when it comes to the bees foraging? How do you know when there is a “flow” and what does it look like?
I think the jury might be a bit out on this one. There is one school of thought that you could in fact leave the coreflute completely out- all year round- even in cold climates. However this school also recommends that the lid of the hive is insulated and not ventilated. Many regular beekeepers use standard hives with screened bottoms and NO corflute cover at all… Then there is another school of though that says solid bottoms are best and leave it in the top slot all year round. Finally the third school does as you have done: upper for the cold lower for the hot.
Has that confused you enough?
for what it is worth I am half in and out of all three schools- I have regular hoves with solid bottoms and flow hives with screened, and sometimes with them I do the third school method and as spring starts move it back down to the lower slot.
I have just come across your question and it is interesting. I’m on the sub-tropical Sunshine Coast of Queensland and have experimented a bit with the cor-flute positions with my four Flow Hives. I have mine in the top slot all year now so that it is as close as possible to a solid bottom board. A reduced entrance to 12 to 15 cms works fine to reduce the risk of robbing and less guard bees needed to defend the hive but I have also fitted a hive mat and added a vent at each end of the roof.
Recognizing when a flow is happening can best be judged in my opinion by a marked increase in the brood size, an increase in the number of yet to be capped frames of honey and more bees flying back to the hive without pollen(they are the bees returning with nectar). In a flow the bees seem calmer. The most unreliable indicator is the Australian bush which cam be really alive with flowers but in a drought the flowers may not be containing nectar.
Cheers