Hiya Ria, harvest the Flow frames in the super as they need all round support or they will twist and leak. Harvest in increments, say 1/5th and if possible use 2 keys in the keyhole. Don’t allow the honey to completely fill the frame outlet, keep an air gap. If you’re harvesting off the hive you can drain them all at once if you like. 2 Fframes will fill a 5 litre bucket nicely.
It’s also good to have a bit of warmth in the frames to keep the honey viscous and wax supple which is one of the reasons I harvest on the hive but then we don’t have SHB to worry about over here.
Never had the need to filter from the Flow frames either.
Good luck.
Hi Ria, I don’t think it will be too early to harvest the flow frames. If it was me in my area, I’d harvest the whole lot because I know there is a honey flow coming up. How much you harvest is entirely dependent on local conditions. This is where a local mentor will come in handy.
Beetle traps will catch the majority of the beetles. It’s the minority that the traps don’t catch that do the damage, sadly.
I strongly disagree with harvesting on the hive. I was going to mention earlier that others will disagree with me.
If the bees are possibly flat out trying to cope with managing beetles on account of all the dead bees, a honey spill over the brood could just be too much for the bees which could possibly cause a full on slime-out. That’s if there isn’t one already.
cheers
Yeah no kidding Jeff. I can’t see where anyone disagreed with you and advised Ria to harvest on the hive…
But for the record, now you mention it, most do.
I’m sure Jeff isn’t kidding with his advice which is to prevent possible flooding of the hive. I harvest my frames in the hive with no issues normally but with an extraction last week one of the frames flooded even with all the precautions.
I guess most like me extract the frames in the hive hoping for the best but there is nothing wrong with Jeff’s idea in totally eliminating that issue.
Harvesting on the hive or off is for each to decide and credit to Jeff for pointing out the risk of extracting on the hive.
This a link to the video about using the traps for small hive beetles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHUmK5SlzXU
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Hi I’m slightly confused, I’m assuming you meant IN the hive rather than ON the hive?
I’ve never had any problems before harvesting the frames in the hive, as that is what’s its purpose for.
I did attempt to harvest 1 x frame in my kitchen yesterday, and it wasn’t easy to say the least eg, I had to have someone hold the frame on a tilt and some honey was also running down the frame (not a lot) when I opened the cells. (I felt personally
to hard & messy/time consuming to wait until the frame was empty).
Hence I’ve place frames back in the flow box to harvest tomorrow (let the girls settle).
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Yes correct, I’ll not over rule Jeff’s advice as I said we don’t have SHB here to worry about which is his concern.
So you’ve harvested on the hive in the past. I guess the issue is that there are grubs in the chamber which makes me think it was wise to remove and check and clean. I wonder how they got in there?
Hi, yes I have no idea, there were maybe 3 in total of the larvae…but at this stage I’m just having to check the chambers more often so it doesn’t happen again…
Cheers
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My apologies Skeggley. I got that wrong. I should have read your post again. Yeah definitely harvest the frames in the super, away from the hive. Please accept my apology. cheers
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No need for apologies Jeff, we are all here to help each other, hopefully Ria has sorted the issue.
Stay safe.
Thanks Peter, much appreciated… 
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Thanks everyone, I have managed to sort out for the moment 
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Thanks mate, same to you.
cheers
Sorry for interrupting this thread. What do you mean by that Jeff? Do you mean taking the honey super off the hive and harvest elsewhere? I thought that the whole point of the Flow hive was to exactly not do that.
I know SHB were mentioned as a reason, so is this method only recommend for regions where the pest is present?
Hi Perth, it’s common for flow frames to flow outside of the comb as well as inside. This depends on whether the cappings move or not. I believe that wet cappings move more than dry cappings on account of surface tension of the caps on the honey, as in wet caps.
It’s like the Rumsfeld theory. There’s things we know that we don’t know. Honey flooding onto the brood & bees can greatly disrupt the bees, giving hive beetles that are normally hiding, a chance to start laying eggs in the brood, which if bad enough can lead to a slime-out.
We know that if we harvest the honey on the hive, there could be a spill, however that spill will be an unknown quantity. Therefore I think it’s best to harvest the honey away from the hive, in the super, for the good of the bees & survival of the colony. Not to mention saving an awful clean-up mess if the hive does get slimed-out.
cheers
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Thanks for that Jeff.
When I noticed that first leak I mentioned, I panicked but didn’t know what was wrong or what to do at first. Then a couple of days later I found several hundred dead bees outside the hive, and I thought it was a separate incident and someone had poisoned my bees as my hive was easily accessible form the street. I eventually sold that hive because I believed that some neighbours were annoyed with increased bee activity. The dead bees could have been from the leak then.
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You’re welcome Perth, it’s not uncommon for beekeepers to see bearding outside of a flow hive directly after harvesting honey with the frames on the hive. I think it’s an issue that I believe no one saw coming until several months after the first flow hives got delivered. I had reservations about other things, but who would have guessed the flooding issue?
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Bearding doesn’t bother me when I observe it, and never noticed any increased bearding after I harvest. In our hot summers it is pretty much a daily occurrence when it’s warm.
The hundreds of dead bees did worry me tough.
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Hi JeffH, you caught my attention concerning the risk of leaks with the flow frames. I’ve yet to harvest my first honey but after reading this I’m thinking it may be a good idea to avoid potential problems. (Unless of course I can confidently assess if it is an issue first up?)
I suppose if I tried first the outside frame adjacent the observation window and it appears ok the rest will be- as I’d assume the other frames would be at a similar stage in a good nectar flow? A bit disappointing as I was not expecting to have to take the super off the hive I must say. I suppose one needs to put an escape board in as part of the process as well given this. Certainly picking up a few tips on this forum!
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