Great area but I think perhaps too late to expect much luck in Flow Hive, you might be better trying an Ideal & waiting for next spring for Flow? as I think @Dan2 mentioned above (or below) more chance if you have a really strong, nectar flow. I know beekeepers around here are still adding supers to very strong hives, but as mentioned we still seem to be in the midst of a good flow in particular areas.
Brilliant Kirsten. That area in the photo is thick with trees too.
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It is, although even up to 6 months ago there were a LOT more, you couldnāt see any houses at all, lots of development because people want a view of Melbourne. Iād rather have the trees, and not just because of the bees! I forgot to mention two other predominant Euc.'s are Messmate & Narrow leafed Peppermint & further up a few hundred metres Euc. regnans, not sure of itās value honey wise.
Iām currently involved with a research project which has revealed that Euc. melliodora (Yellow Box) is āofficiallyā recognised as under threat increasingly throughout the Dandenongs. The very real effects of Climate Change, not far off in the future, now. Dry winters & late rains, humid summers has had a dramatic & visible impact on this species. The dead trees you can see in the photo are examples, in some sites you see clusteres of 10 or more like this.
Not sure if have posted this link before, there is another which also gives specific nutrional values for the pollen & nectar of eucalyptus (for bees), & a few other native species, will post when find folder
found itā¦
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I wouldnt class myself as more knowledgeable but can let you know what appears to be working for me.
I have had a set of flow frames for over a year but only put them on a hive christmas day. Hive is 2 deeps and the top box was 95% full. I rubbed them with wax, removed one of the centre flow frames and replaced it with a frame of honey from below the excluder to entice them up.
Next day bees were working at sealing the frame faces either side of the bait frame, the day after they had moved to working the other side of the frames and when i pulled one there was already nectar in the odd cell.
I am in the middle of a very good flow, a similar strength hive has just drawn out 8 frames of foundation and filled them in 12 days.
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here is a pic I took from the rear of the hive the day after putting the flow frames on.
If you expand it you can see where the bees have already sealed some the cells with wax on the frame to the left and see bees completely in cells at work sealing thing up
Edit: I edited the pic with the area it is easiest to see the partially sealed cells circled.
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@220
Hi Sean, please let us know if they fill it up. Do you have many of those gums flowering around you?
Tasmania has none of those eucalypts in that Australian Nectar Sources list that @Kirsten_Redlich linked us to as far as I know. We get a lot of Black Peppermint in Tasmania (eucalyptus amygdalina) but the flowering period is every 8 -15 years. Many other gums here have long gaps between flowering. Obliqua 7-14 years and Regnans 7 years between flowering. Hard (as I understand it) to run a commercial hive operation here unless you get into the Leatherwood forests. Leatherwoods flower every year guaranteed.
I havent noticed any of the eucs flowering yet on our place, We have hundreds if not thousands of them within flying distance. My only concern is not having enough hives to take advantage if they do all bloom this year and preventing swarming.
A lot of blackberry, dogwood and white clover in flower although it is only since the blackberry and dogwood started that they have really start packing honey away quickly.
You should have some of the eucs in Tassie, tassie oak is pretty much the same tree
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- blackberry has been good this year in rural Tasmania too. Most of the time it is poisoned or removed in urban areas.
We have those three eucalypts but more in forested areas. Black peppermint and Black Gum are more local trees. The problem is the gaps between flowering. -delegatensis can be up to 20 years.
Here is a Tasmanian Oak floor - the sawmillers told me it is a mix of the three gums you refer to. As far as I know you canāt buy just the one type of tree when you get Tas oak.
If I were suddenly told I had to move my hives to Kew, I would probably not have the Flow super on unless there were plenty of big gums flowering nearby because I donāt imagine garden flowers would produce enough nectar to fill it at this time of year. If they could restrict themselves to one or two frames that would be fine, but they tend to spread the nectar across the frames and then none end up being ripe enough to harvest and you then have a problem heading into autumn and winter. I donāt have my Flow super on at the moment and am absolutely certain my bees could not fill any frames enough to harvest them. That is just here of course. I donāt have much prickly box either.
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I would change a few things George
Have a look at my hive
I have two supers for my Queen so the hive will grow quickly and be strong
It gives the Queen more egg laying room which will encourage the bees to fill your flow hive. And allowing the Queen to move around up or down when the temperatures are hot or cold .I did the same as you at first and it took forever to fill the flowhive because itās the furthest away .
Note where my Queen grill is AND make sure you use bettle traps all year round replace them every 3 months just in case
I bought the flow hive mechanics and it came with a gig to fit it in a normal bee box .The top box is my flow hive
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Hi Ricky- is that an ideal super below the queen excluder?
Hiya Ricky, generally the term āsuperā is used for the honey boxes, the queens palace is the brood box. The grill is termed an excluder.And I think you mean jig, not gig. 
And itās more likely a template than a jig.
I have a WSP sized brood box below the excluder similar to yours, Iāve found they like to fill it with honey so I regularly need to remove the honey frames to make room for the queen to lay. It works however I think Iāll be dropping back to 1 brood box next season as its twice the work during inspections. It does seem to keep the brood arc out of the super though which is good for the Flow.
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Thnx for the comments kegs I need to learn the correct terminology and I find if I donāt add that extra room for the Queen my hive is over crowded and splits
Thnx