Do these frames look right?

[meg]

This is my second year of the flow hive and the bees just aren’t filling the frames. I have a traditional hive that is working well.

Any ideas? I have done all the tips. Just wondering if I don’t have the frames set up right?

[Semaphore]

the frames look right. My guess is that colony is not yet ready to store excess nectar. Two hives can be side by side but have very different results. Perhaps the flow one does not have the same population level yet as the other.

[Peter48]

your frame is set up right in the closed position for honey storage. I guess you have worked some bees wax over the cells of the frames or painted on some melted wax to prep the frames before putting the super on. if you have done that then the bees simply have un-used storage space available in the brood box. from the photo the bees are working on the comb so it won’t be long till they are storing honey in them.
i put flow supers on two equal hives, 3 days later, one hive was working busy in the super, the second hive was 5 weeks behind and has been ever since.
cheers

[Doug1]

Good responses here.

One other comment I could add has to do with the potential negative effects of the queen excluder. Bees can be reluctant to cross a queen excluder if there is a honey dome on the brood frames above the brood nest located under the queen excluder. In our conditions we work very hard to eliminate that honey dome in our brood nests before inserting queen excluders…that honey dome has the potential to lock-up the hive. We continually are expanding the brood nest by removing surplus broodbox feed frames…inserting empty brood frames/foundation frames in the center nest area…and pushing capped brood frames to the brood box periphery. This action also virtually eliminates swarming in our conditions. The extent you can do this technique is dependent on ambient temperatures and the hive population. If you don’t get it right, you stress the colony.

Also, when we first got our flow frames we sprayed liquid beeswax deep into the cells using an electric paint gun and two burner hotplate…two man job.