I hope that I am posting this in the right place on the Forums. I couldnt find a Topic just for photos and videos of harvesting the Flow Hive. Happy to move this to the right place.
I know that I put the tubes in the wrong way around and did get some spillage coming out of the screened bottom board, so please guys, make sure you put the round bit on the tubes INSIDE the frames.
I found it quite difficult to turn the lever to open up the cells, so went in by a fifth and turned then waited 5 mins then went in further etc.
The whole thing took just 2 hours for the 2 frames in the middle, and got 5-6 kilos. Its the end of summer here in Melbourne, Australia and i wanted to ensure there was sufficient supplies for winter as it is my first year in this location. The bees did not once visit the back of the hive when we were extracting, even when we didnt cover up the jar and tube.
The honey tasted fantastic, it tasted like it had honeycomb in it but there was nothing but pure honey in it. I was amazed how quickly the bees started uncapping and cleaning up afterwards! The invention wouldnt have worked well if the bees didnt know there was no honey in the capped cells! By the next day, the bees were in there putting wax lining back on the cells again.
The other lesson learnt was that you need to have a stand for the jars, otherwise you will end up with children holding up jars and getting honey all over their hands!
Any chance you could use the little “Upload” button above the text entry window on this forum, so that those of use without Facebook can see your results? I know, only dinosaurs don’t have Facebook. Maybe I am a paranoid dinosaur…
Dear D – dinosaurs, this old fossil even has it ! They are great pix’s n video Dawn. It’s really neat to see the many Southern Harvests coming in now. Also the bunch of Northern Hives being assembled n ready for bee activity up in the Northern latitude !
@Dawn_SD I dont think you need Facebook to see these photos, when i got the link from FB, it said that even people without FB can see it. Go on, I dare you, click on the link… I know you want to!
Sorry for the delayed message (new to the forum) but thanks for posting these photos… it’s great to see results, especially on the east coast of Australia!
I notice in the photos it looks like you are running an additional WSP box, is this to increase brood space? It also doesn’t look like you have an excluder, so I am interested to know if you are seeing stored honey in the WSP box?
@RBK, how observant you are
Yes, I added a WSP to add brood space as I am aiming to build up to a double brood box after this winter/spring. Once I add the second brood box, I will move the WSP over the QX so we can use that just to harvest honeycomb. The Flow Hive is great, but people love honeycomb
I am using a QX, but maybe it cant be seen easily in the photos? In fact i have two of them for my single hive, and when I think the bees want increased airflow around the hive, I swap over for a clean QX. The one I take out, I remove propolis from in between the gaps so it is ready for the next time I put it back in.
Do you have a Flow Hive? what has been your experience so far?
@Philip_Waters, haven’t got one yet but your photos have stirred me up again to add one to my collection of hives when spring approaches.
I am keen to run a two queen configuration with the Flow super in the middle as I have all the required equipment spare (haven’t seen this discussed on the forum anywhere yet) … but it’s probably more for novelty than practicality! Regardless of the configuration, I think adding a Flow Hive into the mix will be a good way to shake things up .
While I have your attention, a few more questions if I can
Did you have any issues encouraging the bees up into the flow super? (I note you aren’t running any Langstroth frames in the super to swap up)
Did you manage to cap the full super of flow frames in the season just gone?
Was your brood established/wintered from last season? or did you start from a nuc/swarm this season?
Did you have any issues with propolis in the Flow frames?
Hi @RBK, happy to answer your questions! I am still a newbie learning the ropes, so dont take my words for gospel!
I didnt have issues encouraging the bees up into the flow super. Not as far as an inexperienced beek can tell! But it did seem quite a while for them to start storing nectar. I think they wanted to line and fully enclose every cell in all frames before starting to store nectar. I suspect that there were some cells that werent fully enclosed (or cracked) and some of the nectar leaked to the bottom.
I didnt have another super installed as I only got the nuc (with 4 full frames) at the end of October (end of our Spring). I aim to end up with 2 brood boxes and 2 super boxes (1 flow hive and 1 WSP as you noted).
I did get a 80% full super capped honey by the end of Feb (end of our Summer) and I harvested 2 frames from that.
I hope that my girls will survive the coming winter! itll be a true test of the colony!
Propolis, there were none in the frames themselves, so no issues at all.
vary nice PHOTOS
They are great pix’s n video Dawn. It’s really neat to see the many Southern Harvests coming in now. Also the bunch of Northern Hives being assembled n ready for bee activity up in the Northern latitude ! 
I know you want to!
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