I purchased and installed two new (Packaged) colonies in early April. One colony lives in a standard Langstroth and the other, smaller L box that acommodates the 6 frame Flow honey super. Growth of both hives has come along well although the full sized L has become a somewhat larger colony than that of the Flow hive. The Spring (In Vancouver, BC) had many days of early summer weather which has given way to cooler damper weather over the last few weeks. I was able to install a honey super on each stack of two brood boxes.
My question lies in the differences between the two honey supers. The standard L super frames are being drawn out steadily and currently have a few frames of partialy capped honey (No queen excluder yet) . The flow super had the bees take to it immediately however, there is currently no capped honey? (There is honey in the middle two flow frames)
As we are definately well into a nectar flow right now I am wondering what is typical as far as to when I should see a full, capped Flow frame? The brood box frames below have been full of brood/Honey and Pollen so there appears to be no problem with colony strength/vitality, for its size, at this point.
I am wondering whether the workers are using the honey in the Flow super to feed from daily rather than as stores (Thus not filling and capping). Upon inspection of the middle 2 Flow frames, there is consistantly honey being produced, cells being partially filled but not capped, over the last few weeks?
It appears from what the corporate online videos show, the Flow frames usually get filled over a few weeks once the nectar flow is on
It appears as though my questions may be linked to a shear lack of colony size however, any wisdom on on this would be appreciated.
Regards, Monty
No two colonies are alike.
It takes time for them to build up and time is all they have, just make sure water and feed , feed if need be to keep the happy. Heat here in riverside and lack of rain sure has put a damper on the bees. Not much in bloom and the field are brown, hope ever one is thinking before throwing lit cig out your car window in calif. Fire all over.
Thanks for the comments Gents.
Wish I could send down some Pacific Northwest rain and temps for SoCal. The weather in some areas is just plain crazy these days!