we are ready to put our flow frames in but it is still on the cool side in Central Queensland Australia so we are leaning towards putting a combination super on our brood box. How have others approached this?
I haven’t done it- but- I think it would be just the same as adding any super to a beehive? The flow frames are really no different than any other type of frame as far as the bees are concerned. The only real difference is the mode of extraction. If you used a hybrid super you could harvest the flow frames- and leave the other frames for the bees- or harvest honey comb, crush and strain- or spin.
I have a single brood box and a super with 7 Flow frames on top, the brood is full with a couple of honey frames on either side, I’ll be under-supering the Flow frames with an empty super this coming weekend, then shifting the honey frames up from the brood to the new super and then inserting some empties down into the brood to allow the queen room to lay for the spring build up. You could use your Flow super in a similar way but by using a combination of Flow frames and normal frames, you may need to make some box modifications though.
I have 4 flow frames in a deep box, in the center, and filled out on either side with regular frames, plastic foundation. The bees have started putting nectar in one of the flow frames, and have ignored the regular frames, well rather should say, they haven’t got there yet. The box needs to be modified to accommodate the flow frames.