I have only had my Flow Hive for 12 months and have been successfully harvesting honey for a few weeks, but seem to have a lot of bees hanging around outside the front of the hive, forming a “beard” off the front board. My hive seems to be very full already, is it time to split the hive? I didn’t really think I would be having to do it so soon.
Hi Lyn,
They may just be doing this if it’s warm where you are - bearding doesn’t necessarily indicate that a split is needed.
I’d have a look inside to see how full it is in there, whether there are any queen cells being formed, and what stage they are at (if you haven’t seen queen cells before - these look like peanut like protuberances, first open and then capped/enclosed. Once the queen cells are capped you can expect your colony to swarm quickly if you haven’t yet split your hive - your old queen will take off along with about half to three quarters of your colony - so ideally you would split before the queen cells are capped or your colony runs out of room to prevent this). Note that you may need to gently shake the bees of the frames a bit to see the cells better.
This is a very simplistic explanation, so please yell out of you need more detail and I’m sure you’ll receive some responses quickly. I should be able to find a picture for you as well if you need 
Hey Lyn
I have 5 hives, all very strong & producing good amounts of honey in the supers. So here is a photo of the hives last night when it was 24 degrees overnight
As you can see there is alot of bearding. All completely normal though. Too hot in the hive, so they chill outside.
Today at around midday this is how the hives looked:
So no sign of impending swarms, they’re off doin their thing
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Thanks Freebee2, yes it was very warm, still is.
I will check the hive though, just wasn’t expecting it be so busy after only one year.
How do you go about taking the super off to check the brood box? The super is soooo heavy and there are sooo many bees, I’d be worried about squashing them. I’m very lucky though, they’re very calm.
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Perhaps there’s a local Apiarist to assist you.
Is there a “Bee Buddy” group in your area?
I’m sure if you ask a local bee keeper to assist you will get invaluable help and advice.
Hi Lyn,
Yeah they can get a bit heavy! You could rope someone into helping you to lift the whole super off if you have a spare suit, or if you are doing it alone just take the Flow Frames out and lean them on the side of the brood box, then remove the empty super box. It’s a good idea to keep the frames in order so normalcy can be restored for your colony once you’ve finished the inspection.
If you move slowly the bees will get out of the way. Great to hear you have a nice calm hive
Sounds like plan, thank you for your help.
Hi again Freebee2, rather than split the hive, would I be better adding another brood box?
It will depend a bit on what’s happening in your hive Lyn - once the queen cells are present it might be too late for that and a split would be recommended ASAP - the colony has essentially already made the decision to swarm at this point - but if your brood box is getting pretty full without any queen cells yet, then you could add an extra brood box instead to give them more room and buy you some time