The rapeseed is almost ready but not quite. I put the flow frames on the hive today in anticipation. But it occurred to me that the bees are hungry as there seems to be a lot of dead bees outside this one hive. Not so much the others. So maybe they need some help to get through the next week until the rapeseed begins to flow.
Can I just put a feeder on top of the flow frame box? Or should I take it off and feed on top of the regular frames?
Hi Sarah, definitely take off the Flow super if you’re seeing problems like a lot of dead bees - and, if the nights are still chilly where you are like they are where I am, the super could be causing heat loss and condensation. Flow supers are so much bigger than trad Lang supers, so putting it on too early can create a chimney effect where the heat from the brood area rises away and then water droplets form under the lid once the warmer air hits the cold surface. Those will drip down into the brood area and chill the bees even more.
But, that’s my educated guess - better to inspect and see if there’s another reason for so many dead bees.
About feeding, yes they might need that - but remove the super, because of the issues I mentioned above and because you don’t want sugar water stored in your Flow super 
Hi, Thanks Eva.
I put the super on only yesterday and inspected. I saw that they didn’t have any honey, but lots of honey. Then, in the middle of the night, it occurred to me that they need help for the next few days until the rapeseed begins to flow. We have quite a bit of that within about 1/2 mile from us.
So this morning I’ll take off the super and feed some syrup until I know the flow has started.
The other hive has no dead bees, but had some honey stores. Both hives are full of brood and larvae.
Cheers!
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Sorry, no honey but lots of pollen…
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I would NOT put a Flow super on when there is an OSR (Oil Seed Rape) flow. You probably know that the honey from OSR crystallizes very fast, sometimes less than 2 weeks, and often before the super is full and capped. This will jam up the Flow frame mechanism and makes a big difficult mess to clean up. If anything, I would put an ordinary medium super on the hive during the OSR nectar flow, and let the bees have it back during times of nectar dearth
Also, never feed with a super on the hive, unless you want to bees to store sugar syrup with your honey in the super!
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Thanks!
I know about the Rapeseed, but I’ve not had a problem as yet…famous last words! I do think we have a week or so until it really gets going. Some flowers are piping out, but the fields aren’t complete yellow as yet.
I checked my notes from last year and the F supers went on at this time, so I’m repeating what I’ve done before. This is year three for me. I am feeding some as well now. (Not on top of the Flow…).
The hives have mediums on them that I put on so they can fill them up, and that’s their winter stores. They then should go upstairs further and store in the F supers. That’s what they done before anyway. It’s worked well so far.
I do wonder with the warm dry spring we are having if there will be more Rapeseed nectar than usual?
Also, those lime trees we have down the street might produce well this year? Last two years the bees haven’t really been interested in them. I’m told lime up here in Scotland can be hit or miss for nectar. Depends on the weather.
One more question, if anyone knows the answer… we have two very large cotoneasters in our yard. The bees have gone bonkers for them the two years I’ve been beekeeping. But I don’t see any flower buds on either plant so far. Am I too early? They had an amazing bloom last year…are they resting this year like some trees do? Anyone know?
I live in rural eastern Scotland by the way, if that informs you guys any. I’m told the local conditions can differ drastically.
Thanks, for the advice.
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You might be right that last year was a mast year, or it is a bit early. I think you’d be a couple weeks behind where I am in SE PA near Philadelphia. We’ve just had maples, willows, and deciduous magnolias out (mags got frost burned the other night 
) and now, cherries are full-on. But no shrubs like cotoneaster quite yet.