They say a Flow frame holds 2.3 quarts of honey. I tapped four frames and got about 6 quarts. How long do you let a frame drain? I waited about 15 minutes after which the honey draining slowed way down. I figure anything left in the frame won’t be wasted.
When harvesting if not all the caps were broken, do you think the bees will notice, open and refill these?
I give it 2-4 hours per frame. Yes it slows down after about 30 minutes, but there is still a lot of honey left to drain. I believe it is slower towards the end because the more viscous (thicker) honey drains last. In fact I have tested it with a refractometer, and the later draining honey can have up to 1% less water in it than the first quart of the flow from a frame.
Yes, don’t worry. They notice within a day and start cleaning everything up