I am new to beekeeping. Being a civil engineer, I was fascinated by the Flow Hive system. My lovely wife surprised me this past Christmas with a Flow Hive 2. I live in Colorado and was advised to get a second Flow Hive brood box if I expected the bees to survive this coming winter. I have a NUC coming the end if April and was advised to feed the bees both 1-1 sugar water and 2 lbs of pollen Pattie’s for 2-4 weeks. Will pollen patties fit over the super and under the Flow Hive 2 inner cover or should I buy a deeper inner cover than sold by Honey Flow?
Hello and welcome to the forum!
There are rarely one size fits all answers but if that advice comes from an experienced local beekeeper then it’s not a bad place to start. Some traditional beekeepers are not fond of flow hives so proceed with some caution when seeking advice. It is generally advised by members here that you just refer to your hive as a langstroth hive and leave out the part about the super being a flow super.
Fortunately you have a bit of time to do some reading and learning before your bees arrive.
One thing you wrote caught my eye:
You won’t want to have your super on right away and probably not at all your first season. Your bees will likely need the whole season to build out the frames you provide and stash away enough food in your brood box(es).
Keep reading and asking questions!
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I bought the second brood box intending to leave the flow super off until next year. The question is will the pollen patties fit on top of the brood box frames directly below the flow hive 2 inner cover? It has a very small lip on it raising the flat board maybe 1/4".
Yes, regular patties should fit under the inner cover but the larger question is whether you want or need to feed pollen.
I’m my locale, the only time that there is a pollen dearth is in winter - feeding pollen in the early spring to give the colony a boost before the main spring nectar flow can be dicey if not timed correctly. Feeding pollen can lead to various problem including, but not limited to, colony starvation and SHB explosions.
I’m sure that other places have differing needs but mostly it’s not worth it for me just to get a bump in spring honey production. Commercial and colony production beekeepers will have differing rationale in their colony management strategies. As a hobby beekeeper I primarily want to make sure that my colonies are healthy and able to survive the winter and the honey I get is a bonus for my efforts.
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I am in Denver, Colorado where we do not have SHB insects. My local bee advisor insists on both pollen patties and 1:1 sugar syrup for a new NUC. They claim we have a fairly short season here in Colorado and new hives need the boost.
So far, the bees have built out the 8 frames (5 NUC frames + 3 new frames) in the bottom deep box and as of 8 days ago, they have built out 7 of 8 frames in the upper deep box. I plan to add my flow supper soon and get rid of all pollen patty and the top sugar syrup feeding. We shall see if I get a bunch of runny honey and if so, then I probably fed them sugar syrup too long.
You might check with your mentor about when the major honey flows are over.
Consider letting the bees not only fully draw out all the frames in both boxes but also fill them 80% with nectar/honey and or brood before adding any additional space.
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