New to beekeeping. Haven’t purchased a Flow as of yet. Trying to get as much info as possible before investment.
We live in Wisconsin. Is it hit or miss with bees getting used to plastic frames in Flow 2 ?
Since we’ll have no means of heating Flow 2 chances are we’ll lose the bees and have to buy a new colony every spring. Is that a problem for the bees when they’re trying to adapt to the frames? I’ve read they don’t always accept the manufactured frames with plastic combs.
From my observations, bees don’t like working on plastic. They much prefer to work on wood or pure bees wax. Therefore I think that what you read is fairly accurate.
Bees will work on plastic much better if it is coated in bees wax. Flow has videos on how to encourage bees to use the Flow frames by applying bees wax to them first. Sometimes it’s not necessary to do that, so therefore it is “hit or miss”.
Your bees can survive your winters with the use of lots of insulation. @VinoFarm has some great videos on how he manages to over winter his bees in Massachusetts. Also @Eva & @chau06 can advise how they over winter their bees in or near Pennsylvania.
I’m certain that they would advise to remove the Flow super during the winter in your climate.
indeed watch @VinoFarm or ask @Eva or @chau06 all so i would recomend you keep an eye on your wather and climet as even its a cold day it would be hot later climet a funny thing
Hello,
I live in Northern Colorado and my bees survive the winter. This winter I am using the insulation as I have moved one hive into a cold corner of my yard.
I expect that all will be well.
Yes, remove the Flow Super after the last harvest. It needs to be protected from freezing temps. I put mine in my garage in a plastic garbage bag. The garage does not fall below 40 deg F.
Welcome to beekeeping.
Peace and do Bee do Bee do…Eric
I had 100% survival last winter for 6 hives by using only a 1.5” piece of polystyrene foam board over the inner cover of my single brood box hives. My 7th hive had a hive wrap and a quilt box on top and also survived. Granted, it was pretty mild last winter.
Cold isn’t as big a deal as wet cold so the top insulation might be the most crucial detail.
And definitely remove the super, harvest, then back on the hive for a day to let the bees clean up. I remove the flow super before our fall flow and let the bees stock up on goldenrod and aster. Mid October-early November I feed them syrup to top them off.
I wrap up and cover the supers (traditional and empty flow supers) and leave them out in the cold - which kills off anything inside. Keep them off the ground and protect from rodents.
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Scavenge some bees wax or comb and melt it down and paint brush it on sloppy on the foundation and frame.the bees will jump on it then.my first year i had foundation and slow growing.as soon as i got some bridge comb and drone comb.i scavenged it and then comb production increased.that first hive for a newb is the hardest.split it as soon as you can.thus if you lose one hive,you are still a beek.