Hi Webcam and Eurekawomen. Good to read your post as i am in the same boat. Received the flow hive and brood in late November and have been reading up on all things bee, beetle and flower since then. A beefriend gave me a apithor trap and I’ve held off using it until today, and have now inserted it in the lower board. Eurekawoman, I’ve been worried about the heat, small hive beetle, and doing the same as you - checking daily and swoting each beetle as it comes into range… not really a sustainable response. Hope to get some other traps in Brisbane and diatomite in early Feb. The bees are busy sealing the hive with propolis and i can smell honey. So exciting! Caterina.
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Oh, i just remembered “BeeShack” is me!
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HI Eureakawoman. Just making contact, i am in CudgeraCreek, slightly north of you but similar conditions. I’ve posted below.
All seems to be going good in my hive, just worried about Shb since I have been reading about sliming of combs, and someone loosing his hive to sliming.
Tomorrow I will be cleaning out my brood box big time. No more burr and crazy comb to be found by tomorrow lunchtime where any Shb can feel relaxed enough to lay eggs.
Nothing that can harbor Shb brood.
Even if my flow frames honey may be set back for a week due to the bees being busy fixing up things in the brood box. At least they won’t swarm in a hurry.
Does anyone think the wash boarding is ‘hygienic’ behavior of bees? They seem to thinly propolise all the timber around the entrance, and cleaned away the splash off from the recent hard rains in the process.
Don’t be tempted to shake it off your hive tool onto the ground - that is a gift for SHB and can encourage robbing from other hives. I take a 4 liter plastic food container with me to the hive, and put the comb in that. If there is honey in the burr comb, a strainer in the top of the container lets it run through while holding back the wax, and I can get a little taste as a reward for tidying up the hive. 
Could be, but unless they are spreading propolis brought by other bees, I doubt they are actually propolis harvesters, as most people agree that they are not foraging bees when they behave this way. Several members of this forum suggested that they are like teenagers who have been told to go outside and do something useful, like clean the porch… 
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Thanks for the advice @Dawn_SD. I have been taking containers and keep the ground clear of bee products. The ants do a great job too when a bee is sick on the ground. The strainer is excellent advice, didn’t think of that.
Too hot today to do my hive clean up job. The comb would just melt away, and me too in my bee suit. Putting it off till Friday and praying it won’t be too late.
Thanks for making contact BeeShack - be good to have a local FlowHive gathering sometime in next few months. I hear that FlowHive people meet before the main meeting of the North Coast Apiarists regular meeting. Have not been in contact with them yet. best, Moira
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A flow hive gathering: Count me in. 
I haven’t been to the meeting yet, but plan to do so in in Feb. Caterina.
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HI Webclan, i tried the reversed Tablecloth method, with the corflute in the lower position but the bees started to pick it up and take it up into the hive. I’ve removed it, and put in a apithor trap. I don’t think it was stuck down well, there was some play in it. I’ll try it again. Caterina.
@BeeShack. My reversed table cloth starts to look at bit roughened up too, and today found a bee entangled. My bees look into the ‘back door’ all he time, was the first time a bee was tangled. Of course I helped her out and she was fine and flew off.
I still find half alive beetles on the cloth, so I will just renew it asap. Without it I wonder if those beetles would have escaped.
That apithor trap is real good, only found 3 beetles today, as compared to 10 about 3 days ago. Not sure if those numbers indicate heavy infestation?
I am missing something? What does the position of the white board have to do with SHB? Do you not use oil traps there? I just am wondering and now not sure where to put the white board.
Hi NeuManaHui. I only have bees since end November, so certainly not an expert in anything bee. The full flow hive is my only experience, although I am prepared for a hopeful future with 2 new as yet uninhabited flow hives and one extra box.
From the beginning I had my core flute board in the top slot, until I thought my bees get too hot in near 40c degrees plus very humid days, so I wanted to provide more airflow. So I put the board into the bottom slot with a microfiber cloth (mate’s tip) and noticed Shb getting trapped on it. Also drilled small holes into one side of the roof and covered with Mozzie net.
Once finding a Shb maggot on comb I put an apithor trap onto the core flute board, which with the trap on only fits into the bottom slot.
One could also put oil traps onto the board, but I think you could put them elsewhere into the hive too.
For now, I intend to get on top of the Shb with the apithor trap, and once winter nears I will use other kind of traps inside the hive and put that board back up into the upper slot. Upper slot also for cutting burr and crazy comb in my brood box, and finally for harvesting my first honey in a few weeks. So the bees can lap up the honey and stuff collecting on top of the board.
So my only concern is Shb and I think our screened flow hive bottoms are pretty ideal for fighting those.
I am not sure how it goes with Varroa and treatments. We don’t have them here in Australia. Hopefully never.
However, this is my limited experience on how screened bottom, core flute board and Shb relate to each other.
In the big scheme of things, I am sure there are plenty of pros and cons, particularly considering different climates and pests and diseases.
Aloha to Hawai’i.
Thank you for that. I did just loose hive to Waxmoth and SHB it was sad. so I am going to do my best to prevent this. I had oil trap but it was a new hive and probably too little too late when I pulled it it was full. No Varroa mites on this island so no bee imports. I have one flow hive and am putting together another box hoping to cut out one more hive. I will look into that trap.
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Hi again Webclan - Eden Country Store in the Bangalow industrial estate have all the basics for beekeeping , they buy form Quality Beekeeping so there goods are a higher price but it is local and accessible and the guy there Ace Ohlsson has extensive beekeeping experience in keeping South African bees. His advice was good, I bought a beetle trap Apithor and it was about $7.60. He has wax supplies at the moment which are in short supply all over Australia. Cheers Moira
Thanks @eurekawoman. Will pop in there on Friday. Good price for the apithor.
Wonder why wax supplies are low. Will find out from Ace if he is there.
So glad we got a local bee supply store.