Hahaha I’m glad you told me they were unused tights @Dawn_SD LOL 
reminds me of a comedy I watched where the robbers used used tights over their faces LOL 
Very interested about the difference in honey extraction vs traditional 
I’ll let the team know about that. I guess you have been measuring it with your high-tech gear?
Can’t remember the name of the gadget you use.
The Arnia hive monitor? No, it can’t really do that. 
I guesstimated it with my low-tech brain instead. 
I based my wild guess on the following thoughts:
It is probably a huge overestimate, but I feel happy that I am wasting far less honey with the Flow frames than I would have by extracting the old way. I am probably just not very efficient in the traditional methods! 
I think I remember you measuring the weight of the hives over time with the Arnia monitor.
I thought you may have measured the weight before the harvest, and compared it to how much honey you harvested traditionally vs honey your harvested from a Flow Frame.
That was my low-tech brain hypothesis 
I certainly can do that. However, I do not have Arnia data for traditional frames. Even if I did have an Arnia monitor under a traditional super, it would be hard to be accurate. You would have to put the extracted frames, cappings and wet wax scraps back into the hive to get a post-extraction weight. Messy and probably only worth it if you are a real geek.
Hi Dawn,
Our main flow is on now (the large blackberries). It’s been hand to hand combat with issues this season. (Bad, cold Wx, late Spring, one Swarm, mites combat came up sudden just when we didn’t need that cutting production n so on)… Just looking ahead to get plenty honey in the lower winter box n super… Anything beyond that will be a blessing ! 
… Some years are like that ! As of yet … Not counting my chickens/honey before I really see it.
Not discouraged … Just learning this new modern mite infested management system better … Love to send all those critters back where they came from with a message I
Won’t give an example of !! 
Been wrestling with Vera’s MD more n artritis … We got several nasty HOT days that did her in … Her right side n leg hasn’t been working will. Our neurologist took us this would come … So we do each day best we can. She’s a real trooper ! She does still sit n help me with folding the clothes. Keeps her being useful (I hate folding clothes)… She still does our business bookerping ( caring for her I’ve mostly semi-retired now. Heck ! Let’s get off the pitty trip. Life is good just having a couple of Bumps…
If Vera is okay … I plan to help a friend commercial beekeeping add a few more pollen traps on Friday. This gives me a couple hour distraction …
Best push on my friend… Cheers.
Jerry
Excellent! I have three hives now but am still a bit hesitant to get my Flow Box out . But vids like yours are encouraging me to definitely have a go this season! 
So what is it with cranky, defensive bees this year in CA? Our friend had to destroy a hive last week because it was totally defensive, stung a neighbor’s dog and Animal Control basically told him to remove it. No one wanted something so angry and he and my husband were stung several times in the attempt to eliminate it (soapy water and bee vac). The suspicion was that they were AHB. His veil was almost entirely covered with bees in his past attempts to work the hive such that he could hardly see out of it.
At the same time, one of MY hives that had previously been very docile was very aggressive, chasing us up to 100’ away from the hive. First suspicion was that they were queenless; but even after development of a new queen they are still no fun to work. Now we have added another medium super to give them more room as there were lots of bees in the inner cover area.
Is it a case of exploding hive populations due to the favorable weather and nectar sources that is making the bees this way? Almost all the hives seem to be less docile than they were earlier in the year; but one or two seem to be overly cranky. You mentioned having cranky bees once in the UK, so I thought you might have some thoughts on this. thanks
Africanised?..
Rusty Burlew wrote a nice article about the common causes of crankiness:
In the UK, I think it was genetic drift. We didn’t habitually requeen until the last few years of beekeeping in the UK, so the bees were free to supersede the queens. We didn’t mark the queens either, so we really couldn’t tell when there was a new queen, if we missed a queen cell. We probably missed a lot of queen cells, as our jobs were too demanding to do weekly inspections. It seems to be common British opinion that gentle Buckfast bees become increasingly aggressive in supersedures, and the F2 offspring can be quite nasty.
We solved our British aggression problem by replacing the queens with beautiful Italians from New Zealand. I am not sure that this international shipment is still possible, but in the early 1990s, it was pretty easy.
Now we always mark our queens, making finding her easier, but detecting supersedure is theoretically easier too. Not flawless though. Those paint marks can easily rub off over time, so it can be hard to be certain whether an unmarked queen is the old one, or a sneaky usurper to the throne!
I have read this and it is a great article. In fact, it gave me a little peace of mind when I thought I may have had a problem with AHB. In fact, my husband tells me that the hive they had to eliminate was really a mess. The owner had not been into it for a YEAR! No wonder, eh? So, in all likelihood it was not genetically AHB but rather behaving as it was due to hive conditions. But, as soon as Animal Control entered the scene it was too late for other options.
I agree with the marking situation…I could not tell if my marked, purchased queen had been superseded or the mark just fell off. I gave up on marking, but probably should try again. Thanks!
We have a little push in plastic queen cage. I think from now on, if we see signs of wear on the blob, we will “refresh” the mark. I have white (last year) and yellow (this year) queen marking pens and the cage in my bee kit bag, so it won’t be a big hassle to do it.
I just love success stories. 
