Hey all. Newbees question for those more experienced.
I have just done a Flowhive inspection and noticed that there appears to be less honey visible through the back window today than there was last Sunday. I’ll attach photos, but am essentially wondering if this is something to be worried about. I harvested two middle frames about 4 weeks ago and within two weeks the frames had started to refill quite substantially. However today it appears that there is less honey in those frames. Do bees move honey around? I’m pretty sure there’s still plenty of food around so Don’t imagine it’s a feeding issue (I live in Warrnambool in South East Australia and it’s just gone Autumn).
Anyway love to hear your thoughts. Here’s the pics:
FLOW HIVE LAST WEEK
Bees do indeed move honey around. As you said, you are coming into Autumn, and although you still have a nectar flow, if it is dropping off, they may well be moving it down into the brood box. It might be worth a brood box inspection to see how much they have stored for the winter. If the outer frames have lots of empty cells, the bees will want to get the Flow super honey down there, so that it is in easy reach for winter. Just my opinion, but I would take a look in the bottom box.
Thanks Dawn. I was thinking I’d perhaps be able to tap another couple of frames before winter, but perhaps not! I shall wait and see. I’ll do a brood box inspection and see what it looks like. I’ll take a few photos and post them when I do.
Thanks again @Dawn_SD I appreciate it.
Jim
You might be able to do that even now. But it is great that you will look in the brood box. If the brood box looks pretty well stocked with honey, then from your photo above, frames 2 and 5 look quite full - if they are 90% capped, you might think about tapping those. Up to you and what you want for you bees. Just an idea.
I have four hives that I manage are living proof that bees move honey around. The guy fed them sugar syrup in their first year and it keeps winding up in the honey supers as they expand the brood nest. I believe I’ve finally gotten all the stored syrup out of the hives and am looking forward to harvesting nothing but honey this season.
We have been in the flow…I noticed nectar stored in the last cells next to back window…uncapped…it was there for about a week, they were adding more during that period…looked this morning and it’s gone…why would they move uncapped nectar in a flow?
Here’s an example:
Bees have to have a place to store 80 lbs of unripe honey (high in moisture) in order to make 30 lbs of ripe honey 18% moisture). As they evaporate the water out of the honey, it shrinks so they take some from somewhere and add to it until the cell is full of ripened honey.
I’m curious to see if anyone has had a completely full and capped Flow super while using a single deep brood nest. The laying area for the queen would shrink waay down because the bees would need that area for wet honey storage.
I run up to 5 honey supers and expect to harvest 3 if that makes sense.
We have had multiple single brood colonies with almost completely filled flow supers- never 100% but 90% easy. The bees always leave one outer face till last- usually on the north face. We’ve always harvested before that last face was done. If we had waited it probably would fill but we’ve never been that patient (bird in the hand…)
