Flow 2 Inner West, Sydney

One last question, should I place the empty frames in the centre of the brood box or leave them on the outside edges as they are now?

You could do either. In a strong nectar flow, I would put them on the outside. At the end of the season (when the flow is weak), I would put them in the middle. Bees prefer to fill from the middle out in honey storage above the brood nest, so if the flow is weak, you need to help them get those frames completed first. If the nectar flow is strong, anything goes, and any space is welcome. :blush:

Many choices. One of the most reliable is to put it into a jar with a well-fitting lid and puncture 6-20 holes in the lid with a hammer and tiny nail or a dressmakerā€™s pin (if you have one strong enough) so that you have <1mm size holes in the lid. If you invert the jar over the hole in the crown board/inner cover, bees can reach up through the punctures to take the honey. Put the empty super on top of the crown board and then the roof on top to close up the hive space.

Otherwise you can put the unripe honey into a ziplock baggie, put it on top of the hive (or the inner cover with the hole open, and slash it with a razor blade. This is known as ā€œbaggie feedingā€ and you can search the forum for lots of advice on that. I would just say, practice in the kitchen sink with a bag of water before you try it on a hiveā€¦ :wink:

You can put your flow frames wrapped in plastic in the freezer. If you have a big enough freezer this is quick and easy.
You can then put these Flow Frames straight into your Super when you are ready.

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its in the freezer now, ready to be put back on when the brood has grown.

Quick question. Checking the tray with oil for SHB today i noticed about 5 or 6 of theseā€¦ is it larvae thats not made it? Are they throwing them out through the floor or something more sinister?

To eliminate other possibles, it is too fat in ratio to its length to be a wax moth larvae, a wax moth grub is about as thick as a pencil lead when it is old enough to get about in the comb, so delete that thought. I have had similar sized larvae on my bottom board and never just one, common is 6 to 10 over a couple days then for some reason it stops. By observation was that they seemed dehydrated - as in not fat and round and not moist looking.
Just a hunch, and no more than that, is that they are probably drone larvae.
Cheers Robert

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thanks so much Peter! I was imagining the worst!

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