Thank you all so much for any information and tips given. Much appreciated.
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When I fit a flow super to a hive I don’t add another super, it will just give the bees to opportunity to ignore the flow frames. Bees prefer to fill bees wax frames rather than plastic.
Use a really knacked old paint brush to paint all the cells ends on the frames with melted bee wax. The smell of fresh bees wax will draw the bees to the super to see what it is all about and get them interested in storing honey there. Spraying the frames with sugar syrup is a waste of your time.
Cheers
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Hey Peter, talked to you a coue months ago. Got my package all installed last Friday. Now I need to see if queen is released today or Friday. Would you suggest smoke or no smoke since bees are still very new?
I try not to smoke packages until they have some brood. It doesn’t take much to make them abscond. 
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Thank you I appreciate it
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I did start hive with 2 drawn out comb foundation frames I got from a friend
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That is a very nice start, but in order to have brood (not just eggs), they need to have had a queen laying for at least 3 days. Most caged queens take a day or three to start laying after release, so I would try really hard not to use smoke. I might light the smoker, in case things get out of hand, but not use it unless necessary. There have only been a couple of hives where I wished I had used it, but most package bees are very docile (they are mainly nurse bees and aren’t looking for a fight) and you really don’t need it.
Everything went great. Queen was released.Got cage out Pushed frames all back together and proper spacing. Filled up sugar syrup which was completely gone and closed up hive. No smoke used. Thanks
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I would agree with Dawn 100%, a colony without brood can be “easily spooked” and can abandon the hive as there is no brood to keep the bees ‘bonded’ to the hive.
Cheers mate, been a while since you posted.
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All went well last week with no smoke. Queen was released. Bees are drinking my sugar syrup like crazy. I’ll do my first inspection since queen was released on Saturday . Hopefully there making some brrod
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Don’t jump the starters gun, I would advise waiting long enough for the queen to have time to have enough brood that the colony has bonded to the brood, otherwise you disturbing the brood area could cause enough distress that the bees would look for a safer home. Keep up the syrup, it will boost the comb building. Cheers Eric
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Wasps are becoming a problem at this time of year in the UK.
If you’re looking for a sliding entrance reducer / mouse guard for your FH2 I’ve sourced this one from Amazon.
The sizing is perfect at 31.3cm x 3.9cm with holes placed for small screw fitting.
They’re very cheap @ £3.08p (English pounds) each, and with free postage!
I ordered 2 on 14th July and they were dispatched on 15th.
They both arrived today 26th July.
If you don’t object ordering from the likes of Amazon or China then they come fully recommended.
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I’m new to this forum and flow hives, I’m researching entrance reducers. With yours, I was wondering why you would want to close in your bees, not allowing them out of the entrance.
Thanks
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You close the hive and lock the bees in, with some ventilation, the night before you want to move the hive to another location.
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Hello Michael, If you want to move your bees then hopefully you have seen the pic of what I use on my hives, it is way of locking the bees in but still allowing good air flow into the hive. Also handy to lock them in if you need to mow the grass around the hive. If you reverse and fit it upside down, so to say, then if gives the bees a restricted entrance that is easily defend able for them against robbing if that happens which is a heap more common during a dearth(A shortage of nectar) the guard bee have a better chance of fighting them off.
Cheers
Ok that makes sense. Thank you
Michael Brand
And, if the hive is being robbed out by another colony.
Or, if you need to do some work in front of the hive.
Buuut it’s not really a necessary bit of kit, there are better things to spend your money on.
Hi skeggley when I had bees robbing, I just reduced the entrance not shut it down. It worked for me I think. Are there any instances were shutting it down is better?
I agree they are not necessary. I’m not a fan of those metal entrance reducers. They can damage wings and they reduce the entrance too much. Being metal bees can’t chew them to their liking.
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I’ve seen those metal entrance reducers, I think they’re fantastic, even though I’ve never used them. The big plus is when you shift a hive, you reverse the reducer to make a beautiful vented entrance closer.
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I have used them (metal reducers) for many years Jeff and think they are great as a reducer or to close a hive up when needed. I thought the widest part of a bee when walking was it’s legs so I can’t figure out how the wings could be damaged and not the legs as Dark Emu feels the fault is a metal entrance reducer. I accept that any entrance reducer lessens the entrance size but that is in most climates a good thing regardless if it is by plastic, metal or wood. The big plus with the metal one is that in a real heatwave condition it is easily slid out to improve the available air flow.
All of my hives have had the entrances reduced and the bees have benefited even in my sub-tropical climate.
Cheers
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