Newbie here, with a 1-month-old Flow hive. I don’t have access to traditional honey harvesting equipment and don’t really want to go down that route at the moment. In order to avoid exponential growth in hive numbers/repeated swarms, I’m interested in the Demeree split idea.
As I understand, after the split, the bees in the top brood box will hatch out, migrate downwards, and that top box is then used by the hive as a honey super. What’s the best way to handle the frames of honey/comb in this new super without having to deal with uncapping and old-school harvesting? Or do I have to closely monitor and try to remove the top box after the brood hatches, but before they start to fill with honey?
Assuming I’m using suitable foundationless frames and the brood cells are relatively new (ie only one season of brood), is that comb safe to harvest as regular honeycomb, or do I need to uncap and extract the honey?
My thought is that I let the hive draw out and fill empty frames in the brood box and then move them up top for the Demeree. The new lower brood box again has empty frames that they begin to draw out and fill, the top brood box hatches out and is then filled with honey. The cells should be relatively clean, having only had one season of brood in them. I can harvest that as regular honeycomb, and then keep the empty frames for the next Demeree split. In the meantime, I’m harvesting the Flow frames as normal for honey. Would this greatly slow down honey flow, if the hive is contantly having to divert resources to draw out new brood cells? Or is the hive going to prioritise filling the Flow Frames over the top empty frames, as long as I keep harvesting them and there’s capacity?
Alternatively, do you keep those frames of post-brood honeycomb as winter food for the hive?
What’s the best way to handle the new top super in a post-Demeree Flow hive?