We harvested our first batch of honey. The morning after our bees had bearded all over the front. They have stayed there for three days so far, and unfortunately it looks like hive beetles have moved in. There are hive beetle larvae in the oil tray. We are really concerned. Maybe we took too much? It was four frames 
If it was leaking into the brood box what should we do?
Hi Leone, welcome to the forum.
I think the best thing is to try to salvage the colony into a fresh hive with fresh brood & frames. Do this with a degree of urgency, on account that the colony will be preparing to abscond.
During the cleanup, try to avoid any grubs making it to ground which is where they will complete their life cycle.
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Just to add to @JeffHās helpful comments, I would say that there may be a couple of issues here, which you could avoid in the future. It sounds like the Flow frames leaked back into the hive. To some extent, this happens in small amounts, but there are ways that you can minimize the leak, and the impact on the bees:
- Before putting the Flow super on the hive, make sure that the wires are as tight as possible. This will reduce flexing of the frames when you insert the key to open or close it
- When you open the frames, insert 2 keys side by side. This reduces the torque/twisting effect of turning the key. I will post a video link below to show you what I mean
- Insert the keys in 20-25% increments and wait for several minutes to make sure that the flow drainage tube does not fill up to the top. If it does, honey is much more likely to flow back into the hive from back flow pressure due to the airlock you may have created
- Make sure that the lip of the drainage tube is on the bottom. This covers the leak back hole at the end of the flow channel and reduces honey leaking into the hive
- Only harvest 2 frames on any particular day. That will give the bees time to clean up any leaks before you do the next harvest. Like us, bees hate having wet feet, and as Jeff says, it may provoke them to abscond
Hope that helps. Here is the video:
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Goodmorning JeffH and Dawn. Thank you both for your responses. They are still bearding this morning. We have reached out for assistance as a matter of urgency. We both work during the day, just hoping we can fix this before they move on.
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We recently did a four-frame harvest on each of our two hives and the same is happening. There is almost certainly some leaking back in to your hive. This happens and isnāt a real problem. The bees clean up, but it seems lots of them think cleaning is not their job and hang out bearding at the front while the cleanup crew gets to work. This has happened every time weāve harvested. They eventually go back in, although right now the hot weather is keeping them out.
A few hive beetle larvae at this time of the year is also normal. They prefer the warm weather. But also, the movement in the hive has probably also let some beetles out of their ājailsā that the workers corral then in.
Itās probably a good time to do an inspection of the brood box and check things out for sure. After all, the super is probably around 10kg lighter right now.
Iām betting youāll get beetles running around when you do. Check for signs of their lavae, looking for
- Clumps of small eggs in cracks in the hive
- Honey that is fermenting or dripping out of the cells
- Combs that feel slimy
- A smell of rotten oranges from the combs.
If itās just lots of beetles running around, squash as many as you can. Try to not harm the bees though as they will be chasing them around as well.
Cover the bottom of the pest management tray with a cheap vegetable oil and add a dash of cider vinegar and you will find a few down there over the following days. I have a spare tray and swap out fairly often.
This video shows me recently getting stuck in to the SHB in the first minute.
Cheers.
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I donāt think that āA few hive beetle larvae at this time of year is also normalā. at this time of year, or any time of year.
In order to get beetle larvae, the beetles have to first lay eggs, while sliming the area & destroying the comb that they laid the eggs in (a partial slime-out). A good number of workers will stop them from doing so.
You are correct in saying that the beetles break out of jail while the cleanup crew cleans the mess, while at the same time other bees are bearding outside the hive.
During this period (which is unusual in beekeeping), a colony is vulnerable to a partial, or full slime-out.
Anything we can do to avoid this from happening can save a lot of grief going forward.
This photo by @Heron on August 2017 shows his method of harvesting flow honey.
His strategy was to avoid honey flooding onto the brood.
In this nest photo heās showing where the honey is flooding from.
Leone doesnāt say how many and a few is quite normal for me at least. Definitely an inspection is in order to be sure but I wouldnāt panic.
Let us know how you go Leone.
Removing the Flow frames to harvest is not recommended by the Flow people. Too much disturbance can weaken and break the capping leading to extra leakage as shown in the photo.
Iām guessing it was a full length opening in one go as well, causing the trough to overflow through the weakened lower cells.
Some honey on the brood is not a problem, apart from youāre not getting all you should in the bottle. The leak-back opening is there to let honey back in to the brood all the time. The bees quickly clean it up over a few days.
I have done several harvests and nearly always thereās some leakage in to the tray. Bees donāt abscond because thereās a little honey on the brood frames. My recent harvests saw about 250gm in the tray of one hive and only a little, less than 100gm, in the other. The bees bearded heavily for a couple of days. Itās been hot too, so thatās another bearding factor.
Iāll reiterate, Leone needs to look in the brood box looking for the points listed for SHB.
Just another thought Leone. Was it SHB larvae or wax moth larvae?
This shows both, wax moth on top and SHB below. Note the spikes and spots on the SHB larvae. SHB also only has the front six legs. Wax moth has more.
Hope this helps.
Hi Clint,
Thank you for your experience here also. What a wonderful community forum. It is a steep learning curve. Turns out there were hive beetle larvae in the brood box! (ick!) and appeared that the queen was likely out of the hive (I would move out too!). So a pretty dire situation. However, turns out it is a strong and healthy colony. Here is what we did:
Removed the super box and checked out the brood frames (as per forum consensus). The outer frames had been compromised with hive beetle larvae, so removed the two outer frames from each side and replaced them with new frames. Then scooped by hand as many bees as possible from underneath and on the front of the hive and put them back in the brood box, hoping the queen was there. Then put all of the super frames and the four infested brood frames into a deep freezer to kill the hive beetle larvae. They will be there three days until Monday. The bees appear to have all found their way back into the brood box, and are not bearding today :)) It looks like the bees are back to their daily rhythm, and we are a little wiser and even more attached to our lovely bee friends. We are so grateful for everyones supportive information and the appropriate advice to act with urgency that came from this forum! 
x disaster averted
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Just to clarify, Iām not suggesting to harvest away from the hive, Iām simply sharing Heronās method of what he thought would eliminate a possible disaster.
Back when Heron built that harvesting stand, as I understand it, he was getting a lot of flooding onto the brood, and onto the ground which was happening to other members as well. This was with the original flow hives that only had the coreflute sliders (no trays).
I think he just wanted to put an end to the flooding onto the broodā¦
The very first flow hiver I met phoned me several weeks later asking me what I did for hive beetle slime-outs. He told me that he harvested his flow frames, got a flood, then several days later noticed his hive got slimed out. Naturally I put my thinking cap on & came to the conclusion, basically what Iāve been talking about.
Iāve been dealing with hive beetles since they arrived 25 years ago. The advice I give in regards to hive beetles is based on my many experiences & observations over that time. People would be unwise to ignore my advice, unless they want to learn the hard way, which is fine by me.