Cleaning the Flow channel

I’m jealous of anyone who can grow passionfruit. Talking about personal experiences and trying things out for yourself, I have tried many times over many years with different varieties of passionfruit. I grew a mammoth Nellie Kellie grafted one only to find it never produced fruit (bar one or two tiny inedible ones) and then suckered everywhere. It is still suckering years after I cut the parent plant down. Many swear by the Nellie Kelly and I see their vines loaded with fruit… I purchased another grafted Nellie Kelly last year and put it in a pot . It is now sulking away out there not growing. I reserve my judgment as it is probably all my fault.
I tried the Norfolk Island Black (not grafted) only to find it got eaten to to a slow death by weevils.
My blueberries are doing better. The bumble bees seem to pollinate these better than the honeybees as the bumbles are adept at piercing the side of the flowers.

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Hi we clean the channel with hot water before each harvest now because even after letting every drop drain out we find droplets and fermentation in the area.I have cut down one of the flow harvest tubes and put that in to stop water going into the hive. Then put a long handled bottle brush right to the end of the channel and rinse it off a few times.
Some photos in this forum somewhere. Nit sure how to send link to them.

Freezing destroys the texture of avocados. Even guacamole becomes watery when frozen. The good thing about avos is that they do not ripen on the tree. So as long as they stay on the tree, they will not rot. That means that you can pick them over about 5 months. Towards the end of the season, they develop an enzyme in veins running through the flesh, which turns the veins tough and brown. The flesh can become slightly bitter at that point too. The possums still like them though!

We manage by giving a lot away. As avocados are generally over a dollar each here, they are very much appreciated. Same with passion fruit - they are often $2 or $3 each. I think our bees have paid their rent quite nicely with these fruit crops! :smile:

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For cleaning my extraction tubes I have been using a shotgun cleaning rod and mop. Works great and should work just as well for cleaning the flow channel.
I have only been keeping bees for a bit over a year but find myself falling more into line with JeffH views on the flow frames. I only have one set of flow frames and 7 hives. I havent had any issues with flooding the brood chamber but have been taking the precaution of extracting each frame in 5 or 6 steps letting each section drain before inserting the key a bit deeper and opening the next section of the frame.
I can see how they would be very attractive to someone looking to keep one or two hives but having 6 other hives and conventional extraction equipment Im not seeing any real benefit for my situation.
I find the flow frames a lot more difficult to remove and inspect than conventional frames. Extracting the flow supper takes me as long or longer than a conventional box, I’m really struggling to find any benefits for my own situation and certainly nothing to convince me to purchase another set of flow frames when for the same money I could get 10 conventional boxes frames and foundation.

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Hi & well done Dawn, I was thinking of you last night. We watched a program on the food channel. A bloke was in San Diego sampling seafood at a couple of the large seafood restaurants.

I have never had the impression that you could freeze avos. However I looked it up (as ya do). They say that you can freeze them after cutting them up & coating them with lemon or lime.

I did some robbing yesterday before the onset of a heat wave. Only just under 4 boxes of honey. After extracting the regular honey, there was a LOT of jellybush honey left behind. So that turned into a big day. I’m not done yet. I’m using a potato ricer to squeeze the jellybush honey out of the comb & wax, which works well. I think I’ll end up with about 18 kilos of it from yesterday’s effort.

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If you don’t like the Flow Frames/Flow Hive - I’m sure you could advertise for someone to pick them up for free, or sell them.

I was pointing out that from our experience, the channels clean out well with warm water. I pointed out the challenge of handling the frames with the sticky propolis. The conversation went from there.

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Hi Skeggley, I only just now spotted your post. I went out & checked mine. They are magnetic. Maybe you could drag a magnet through the grass to find it.

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