I’m just glad I thought to put foil down on my table first! 
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I use a couple of large sheet pans with a foil bridge over the middle. That means I can harvest the drips too. Although usually I don’t get more than 2-4 tablespoons of spillage. The sheet pan rim also has the benefit of tilting the super to a nice draining angle, which decreases the risk of leaks. 
Perfect! See? I said you were smart, now you are proving me right! 
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[quote=“Dawn_SD, post:22, topic:23352”]
The sheet pan rim also has the benefit of tilting the super to a nice draining angle,
[/quote] ooooo clever! I like it! I stacked two big kitchen spoons aim top of each other to get the angle haha! Does the trick but a bit fussy.
Thank you, thank you takes a bow, pats self on back 
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Thanks for pointing that out Dawn, I changed the wording of my reply. I should have read Erin’s comment more carefully.
cheers
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No worries! I understood what you were saying, and it was good advice for the future! Thank you for all your input!
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It is a bit of a pain but you are going to have to pull the flowframe apart. You have to carefully lever the wire up and over the ridges at key end of the frame top and bottom. I use a small flat screw driver to get under the wire and lever it up.
It is not easy and the wires can get damaged.
Hopefully flow can send you a couple of segments to replace where broken. If you try to get the wire out of the corner notches first then it will slide up over the curved section at key entry. Make a note of how many twists in the wire so that when you put it back together there is enough tension. The wire may stretch so an extra twist may be needed. I would advise you get a couple of spare wires from the flow team. It is interesting that it broke as there is a lot of flex in that area and the segments usually just won’t open @Freebee2
Good luck.
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Erin, best for you if flow replaced your frame and you send yours in for investigation on the weak spot. They would want to learn what the issue is and you deserve a functioning flow frame.
I guess that’s what they may offer you.
I noticed any leaks I get are in spring, on overwintered flow hives. Just lost 2kg of honey on the bottom board harvesting 2 full overwintered frames. Inserted the key 20% 20 minutes apart.
I never have significant leaks, just some first frames in spring.
Will harvest away from hive when I know they are overwintered. May be partially crystallized.
You may get leaks just if some sections of honey are way thicker than others.
I’ll be more aware and proactive in first spring harvests from now on. During the flow, all flows well.
Throughout the season I don’t get any leaking at all.
Sincerely hope you will get that frame replaced. It doesn’t look right.
Best wishes to you.
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That might be a problem, given that Erin is in the USA and Flow is in Australia. Shipping an intact frame with wax, honey etc on it may cause all kinds of seizures in the Dept of Agriculture/Disease prevention authorities! 
Nice idea, probably optimal for problem-solving, but perhaps not practical these days.
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Oooyhae. Didn’t even think of that. Yep, major upheaval at customs.
Well, maybe they can have an ambassador dissect it then and advise flow to send a new one. Way to go.
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I have contacted the Flow team and they are going to send me two new frames! They want me to finish harvesting (i have two left to go) before sending them out though in case there are issues with those. I am so very pleased with the customer service, they’ve been so helpful and accommodating! I’m blown away!!
They said that maybe the damage occurred during packaging, or perhaps the cables were a bit too tight and caused the mechanisms to stick. Either way, I sent pictures and model numbers so they can look into it. It would be awesome if I can send the damaged one in, I do have a feeling though That the shipping costs might outweigh the benefits… if I lived closer though I would totally bring them to headquarters myself!
@Dawn_SD you’ve always got my back! 
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Congrats Erin. Flow customer service is indeed great, isn’t it?
Hoping for a great next season for you!
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You have done very well. Please consider ordering a second Flow key. If you open with 2 keys at the same time, it puts less force on the center of the frame lifting mechanism. I find it less hard work opening frames with 2 keys, but it may also contribute to their long-term lifespan.
Here is a link, in case it helps:
https://www.honeyflow.com/shop/flow-spare-parts/flow-key/p/268
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I do plan to do this! I might ask to send a second key (purchased of course) with the frames so we don’t have to send two separate packages to the same place.
We also plan to order a 7 frame super for next season… we learned this year that it would definitely be beneficial to have two hives! So we’re hoping to be able to do a split in the spring and make it a 10 framer.
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Another thing I have noticed about Fframes is that they bow due to the weight of the honey even if the wires are tight and especially if they have been in the hive for a while. Once the key/s are inserted and turned they straighten and this breaks the seal on the bottom trough. This can be exasperated when inspecting the frame prior to harvest and the frames are stuck to the qx.
Losing a third of a frame over the brood would not be good of course and, as much as I hate to say it, points to off hive extraction.
Great news about the replacement Fframes @ErinNewbeeMama, customer service and pride in their product is second to none. Well done Flow. Now if they could just fine tune their extraction instructions…
I wonder if, before harvesting, you could tip the super and slide a thin board or even some foil between it and the brood box, to prevent such spillage. I would presume you would need two people to do it, and it kind of defeats the purpose of not disturbing the bees during harvesting. But I guess if leaks are an issue, could that help address it?
Hi Erin, it looks like harvesting the flow frames away from the hive is the best way to go to be 100% sure that no honey leaks onto the brood. What you suggest would be an option, however you might as well harvest away from the hive because in doing so, you are also inspecting every frame before harvest. That way you’ll know what %age is capped. Also you’ll get to see if any brood or SHB activity is present in any frames.
I have a lot to do with new flow owners in my area. If they ask me, I’ll always advise to harvest flow frames away from the hive, based on observations over the last few years.
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Where my bees live, I just get leaks at first spring harvest. My flow supers stay on over winter. They usually keep their weight, so something comes in over winter.
So my future spring strategy is to pop the flow super on a tray next to the hive (on my quad trailer), bees and all, and extract the full frames. Even the half full ones if no new nectar is in there.
In the meantime, while extracting, I can give the broodbox a thorough check up and do splits or whatever is needed.
I’m guessing some honey starts crystallizing over winter and the crystallized bits block the flow, so the liquid honey finds a way through the cappings.
In areas where certain honey crystallyses fast, causing leaking, harvesting off the brood box could be an easy solution.
In the end, you just need a few cells of crystallized honey to get a major leak.
Even if you inspect the frames before harvest, you wouldn’t know which cells contain hardened honey.
not if there are millions of bees around- if you tried that and honey did spill- chances are bees would drown in the pools of honey on the tray- defeating the purpose.
I don’t know… we don’t get any disastrous honey leaks. Pretty happy so far- and the bees are too. And this year our honey took out CHAMPION and RESERVE CHAMPION at the Royal Show…
Regular frames leak: bridge comb leaks, honey in the lid leaks, cross comb leaks, uncapped nectar leaks, honey on edges and bottoms of frames leaks. HONEY LEAKS. bees have dealt with honey leaking for 65 million years. They lick it up. If you harvest flow frames two at a time- and not two adjacent- and you do it in increments- any leaks there may be (and there may well not be any) are confined to certain areas, and are minimalised- giving the bees a chance to lick them up before they pool or cause big issues.
(Caveat :Beetles no problem here).
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Yeah, I’m with you Jack, I’ve seen no leaks, cautious when harvesting, no more than 2 frames per extraction per hive, incrementally.
Perhaps they do leak, we hear of many flooding, however I see no detrimental effects in my hives to date. Once I have seen bearding on a hot day while extracting but all good at the end of the day.
And, no beetles here either fortunately.
On my long ‘to do’ list I have a stand alone extraction box in mind.
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