Hi All,
I’m a pretty new beek, and have a flow hive I started March 19, with no queen excluder per the advice from the experienced guy I got my bees from.
Progress has been good, and last week I tried to harvest honey from a flow frame (#3) that I thought was pretty full. Looking in the rear window, the cells in back appeared almost full. When harvesting, though, the flow key was really hard to turn, and only about one pound of honey came out. On close inspection, there were larvae in the honey
I did a hive inspection, and sure enough, there was brood comb in at least frames #3 and 4. The others looked clean but I may have missed some under the bees. So, what do I do? From sifting through these forums, I think the procedure needs to be something like this:
1. Remove the Super
2. Ensure the queen is not in the Super by taking all of the frames out and shaking/brushing all the bees on each frame into the brood box
3. Put on the queen excluder
4. Replace the Super
5. Wait "X" days until all the brood hatches -- they are likely to be drones
6. Harvest the frames that the brood was in
7. ??
Does this look about right? I am sure step #2 will be a lot of fun …
Questions –
- Since the comb in the flow frames is likely to be drones, can the drones get through the queen excluder?
- Will the bees clean the frames that the comb was in, or do I have to take any extra cleaning steps (ie, step 7)
Thanks much for any help!!