Converting traditional hive to Flowhive 2

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I recently purchased a 8 frame langstroth hive that has one deep box with an ideal below that on the bottom. The weather hasn’t been suitable to open it up yet but just wondering what to do with the ideal once I do open it up as I am converting to a flow hive 2

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Hello and welcome to the Flow forum! :blush:

With your climate, I would keep the ideal and put it on top of the Flow hive brood box, under the queen excluder. The bees will probably need the extra half box for food stores over winter, and you will be taking the Flow super off in the autumn to avoid getting propolis etc in it. :wink:

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Hi Dawn. Thank you for replying :blush:. Really appreciate your help. I had wondered whether the ideal might be useful for extra stores during winter. Once Spring comes do I move the QE under the ideal above the brood box and add the flow frame super on and then eventually remove the ideal altogether?

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You can do it either way. If you don’t want a lot of brood frames to inspect, put the ideal above the QE. If you want a stronger hive, put it below the QE. Your choice really. I wouldn’t remove the ideal at all though. Just leave it on as part of the hive all year round, unless your colony shrinks dramatically for some reason. :wink: