Ugh, just when I’m getting over those scary-looking combs, you spring cane toads on me 
…just kidding, Jeff - well done 
2 Likes
Hi Eva, that job is well behind me now. There’s another job I started a week earlier: It’s a client with a Flow hive who can’t get the honey to drain out of his frames. He wanted me to take his hive away & bring it back after a lot of work near the hive gets completed. My reward for that was the Flow honey 
I tried harvesting (with him present) with the frame on a bench, so we could see if the cells were opening or not. Clearly a lot of cells wont open. I got a little bit of honey over a long period, which turned unripe during high humidity, for my trouble, which I finished up freezing. My real reward will be 3 splits I’m taking out of the hive, because it was super strong.
I told him about the wax moths cleaning up the frames over a 4 month period as mentioned earlier on this thread. So after allowing my bees to clean the honey out, within hives, above an empty super, I now have the frames sitting in my honey room, waiting for wax moths to do the job over the next 4 months.
Edit: The F. frames are 5 yrs. old. However, when looking back, I think his issue of frames not draining as normal arose after we discovered a LOT of brood in them, which we luckily discovered before he got to crack them. The leftover cocoons must be making it hard for the honey to flow. Wax moth will take care of all that, as well as the buildup of wax & propolis.
1 Like
I talked about the bees chewing the entrance closers of the fake Flow brood box. I transferred the colony into another brood box so I can repair this one. Photos following:
At the time of transferring the colony out of the wall into the new brood box, I advised the owner to repair the large gap at the top of the brood box. One of the photos shows the large gap that never got repaired. Consequently the bees endured 4 winters with that large gap.
1 Like
An update from the last time I was at these hives, 6 months ago.
The owner got me to come back to inspect his 1 Flow hive & 3 fake Flow hives, because he thought he could harvest honey from 2 fakes, add a Flow super to the Flow, plus confirm that one fake was dead. There was no honey to rob, the Flow wasn’t ready for a super (only about 60% brood, in the first week of winter), and the dead hive was dead with Greater Wax Moth activity, plus no obvious evidence of previous hive beetle activity, probably due to the cold weather.
One of the questions the owner asked was “how long ago did I think the hive died out”. I replied “probably a couple of months”. I thought to myself, “you should be telling me that”.
It’s amazing that after the dead hive 12 months ago, with the eventual slime-out, that the owner would have been taking a closer look at his hives. Not once every 6 months.
1 Like
Oof, and you have to wonder what possesses him to keep on adding bees to his doomed apiary 
1 Like
Yeah, he was really shocked that he couldn’t add the honey super & that there was no honey to rob, despite all the record breaking amounts of rain over the past 6 months. For some reason he’s in a dead spot, because my bees have done well despite all the rain. My bees at my doctor’s yard not far from him have also struggled. I moved most of them away, where they’ve really excelled.
He compared his first year of success with one Flow hive, when he got lots of honey, apparently, to this year where he got no honey with 4 hives
I explained how we are now in the la nina weather effect, whereas we were probably in the el nino effect in his first year.
I could have also explained that as a beekeeper, he is also a primary producer, & therefore subject to all the challenges that primary producers face. Maybe I’ll tell him that next time.
2 Likes
Good on you Jeff for helping someone so desperately in need.
Thank you Bianca, I guess you figured he was the same bloke we talked about last week, with the 3 fakes.
I noticed while driving to his property that some gum trees are in flower. He wouldn’t be noticing that. Anyway his bees might get a burst of activity if that keeps up.
Sadly he falls into the category that people were saying about Flow at the beginning. “People put bees into a Flow hive, then expect to be able to harvest honey at will”, etc. etc. He sounded a bit disillusioned about the Flow hive the other day. I think mainly because he can’t do exactly what I just mentioned.
I’m replying to my comment from mid March, where a bloke asked me to mind his Flow hive while he got some work done, near where the hive sits. That was 6 months ago, & we haven’t heard a word.
I’m wondering if the Flow hive will finish up being mine, because on appearances, it appeared that the couple were a bit fed up with the challenges of keeping bees, on top of the Flow frames not flowing.
The wax moths were a bit slow to start cleaning up the Flow frames, however they’re into it now. I suspect that all the frames will be ready to pressure clean to look brand new again by Christmas.
2 Likes
Hi @Eva , thanks for reading my story. 19 days later & still no word. I’m tempted to get Wilma to text him. However now that it’s this long, it’ll be interesting to see how long before he contacts us.
I had dealings with the bloke who owns the 1 Flow & 3 fakes. During the week I delivered 1 colony for one of the fakes, plus I hosed out the crud from his Flow frames, before putting it on his hive, plus fiddled around with his other fake hives.
After I got home, I remembered that some of the Flow frames had to be re-aligned, which I meant to do before I left. I phoned the owner to tell him that the frames needed re-aligning. He didn’t know how to do it. No amount of me telling him to put the rod in the top slot made any difference. This former politician, now barrister (you call them attorneys) couldn’t work out how to re-align his Flow frames, even though he previously harvested honey from them. I had to go & do it.
2 Likes
I wonder if he knows how to wipe his own… nose??? 
2 Likes
This bloke’s a nightmare. My assessment of this bloke before I met him was that he enjoyed a life of privilege at the expense of other people.
Sad, isn’t it? Wonder what had him so balky about fixing it himself…barristers!
Speaking of lingo, you wrote gernied in a previous post, which isn’t familiar here. But I thought it sounded like the wheelie beds patients are in at the hospital (gurneys), which seemed to capture the spirit.
A Gernie is a water pressure cleaner.
2 of his hives are pretty strong now. Wilma told him in a text that we’ll have to talk about swarm prevention strategies. I told both him & his wife that I’m flat out splitting hives in order to prevent swarming. I mentioned it again on my return trip. He wont take the hint, so, without a doubt both those hives will swarm. His neighbors will know before him, because the hives are closer to their house, than his own. You can see it on Google earth.
He is definitely a honey eater, not a beekeeper…
2 Likes
For sure, Dawn. Just as you write that I was thinking to myself, why can’t someone like that just be content to buy local honey?
1 Like
The fake Flows have a large gap between the frames & the QE. Consequently I cut a piece of comb out from under a frame, plus a few more bits of comb. He got me to remove the bees from it. That little bit of honey was the first bit of honey in a long time. Long enough for him to forget how to use the Flow key.
Jeff, you are made of sterner stuff than me. I know of the guy you are talking about and I would not have bothered answering his calls.
I have a customer up in Noosa who wanted a couple of kilos of honey. I said that’s ok. I have hives up that way so we can meet up. After being 15 minutes late, she then told me she was $4 short after I handed her the honey. She then proceeded to drive away in an $80k car. I don’t answer her calls anymore.
4 Likes
Hi Al, I probably should ignore his calls, however I somehow relish the challenge. I’ve been feeling guilty for not driving home the point of swarm prevention a bit harder. If I did, I would only be repeating myself, because I explained it all to him in the past, & quite extensively in one of my free advice sessions. I wonder how I’d go asking for free legal advice.
I’m heading off shortly to split a hive that I feel needs splitting. I think I did that hive about 6 weeks ago. I did 2 hives on Friday. One had a queen cell with an egg in it, so I took 5 frames of brood & bees out of that one.
A challenge is good. But you must have more than 24hrs in your day with all your various activities. I don’t know how you do it.
After telling my brother he needs to split his hive because of so many bees, (thinking I’M the knowledgeable one 
) I came in to find one of my house hives swarming. So, the past few days are all about splitting, catching, swapping brood, extracting. But no surfing. 
So many trees flowering at this moment.