Byron Bay to Solihull, we have Flow Hives

Flow Hive
21

Not the boxes Dee using National Frames in a Lang box. If you want to interchange your nationals they can be made to fit Langs readily - I’ve got them they work I made a few more but when I finish they can go back into the National boxes.

If I want to sell a NUC to A National Owner I can Change them back

22

I thought you must mean the frames.
If you put a strip along the frame top bar then put it into a Lang I can see two problems.

  1. You lose the top space
  2. Bees will attach the frame to the side of the box with wild comb as there is space each side of the side bars.
23

@Dee it works for me - I had to use the nationals that came with my Nucs worse comes to worse

  1. You only lose 2 rows at most it is really not that bad.
  2. The side pieces 2" either end they build brace comb no worries - first they filled it with Drone in Summer - now it is filled with nectar/honey
  3. They don’t seem to attach it to the side of the box
  4. You could always put a 4" “Box” to the side of the frame if it really worried you and use it for cut comb
    Or attach the 1" lath vertical as well with small “L” would not need bottom piece as it will be a small piece of comb and use that for comb honey
24

I had a look round. Lang nucs are like hens’ teeth, whereas every opportunist seems to be offering Nationals. You might be better sticking to the format you have. I might go further and suggest you prepare some to over winter and sell them early in Spring…at a premium… to people who have lost their bees :smile:

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The price of Poly Nucs is not bad - I was going to invest in some Cardboard Nucs for selling on.

The Australian Cardboard Nucs are complicated. If you look at but Mann Lake they do Cardboard Nucs for £6.84, Plug/Stopper 18p and and Disc entrance £1.62. So all up under £9. Couple of Frames 5 - 6 (Ten Frames £10.08) - £2 a piece Done and Dusted £21.

Sell Nuc’s at £120 a piece and you’re quids in.

27

Dex you have done that before does Wasp know? LOL

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@DextersShed, another option would be for the hives to show a decent profit.

31

Hi Dexter, when I saw what Valli said you could sell a nuc for at the start of spring, I started to think “what a great opportunity”. I bought home 6 boxes yesterday & 6 more today, so I’m extracting tomorrow. What I got today might be a lot of clover. It’s all good profit.

32

Dear Valli,
Do the bees like flow hive and fill it with honey?

33

I want to buy some .But when I check a few youtube. 2015 FlowHive end of season review.

35

Interesting.
The flow frames were put in the middle of traditional super frames and were in the super for two months.
The chap has reported a nectar dearth but the bees HAVE filled and capped those outer frames ignoring the inner flows, even though super frames are generally filled from middle to side.
Perhaps the wax frames are just easier to work?

36

Hi @Dee, to answer your question, yes I believe wax is more easier for them to work. Funny that, I found that bees prefer wax to plastic. This is just one negative video, I’m sure there’s lots of positive videos out there. @DextersShed, don’t forget us down under. There’s a honey flow on right now. I’m tipping some good results (outside of the Flow team) before the end of this year.

37

I hope they post them here. It would be good to get some feedback in the first season

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Honey flow team’s video is so good. So I thought the bee would like the flow hive. I was a little naive. And I have found two men in youtube is fail.
Is your test in a good situation now, JeffH?

39

Jeff is referring to plastic in a generic sense, not in specific to the flow frames. He hasn’t got flow frames. Many beeks use plastic foundation, which are panels of thin plastic with the comb pattern molded on it, rather than wax foundation.

My own experience has been once the plastic frame has been drawn out once, the bees don’t differentiate from the wax foundation. When they are both new the bees will often do the wax first and then the plastic.

It looks as if the folks who are reporting failure with the flow frames at this early date have introduced the frames into their hives in a somewhat boneheaded fashion. Late in the season it seem pretty natural for the bees to prefer filling already drawn comb with the end of the season nectar flow, rather than going to all the effort of prepping the new, unused, flow frames, which need to be finished off with wax on the inside, drawn out a bit and then capped. Easier to just cap comb that already there.

Beeks have been testing the Flows for years now and had great success with them. I am pretty sure if the bees refused to work in the flow frames that Michael Bush would not like them so well. He doesn’t strike me as the sort of person who would mess around with a gimmick.

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40

Thanks Dee, yes for sure, well you would kind of expect some good results by the end of this year from down my way, meaning the southern hemisphere.

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41

G’day 98 Amo, I haven’t bought one, however some customers of mine have 2 arriving in Dec. I’m going to be getting 2 colonies underway for them this week. We live in a good honey flow area, so if I get my way, we should see results by March.