Yeah, take notice of those old timers.
Iâm thinking that maybe one of the flow team will answer this question in the near future.
Donât take too much notice of the Flow promotional video in this regard. The fact that the frames look capped by looking through the clear end frame view is certainly no indication that the honey is ready, also it wont tell you if thereâs any brood in the frames you intend on taking the honey from. The only way to be certain is to remove & inspect each frame.
2 Likes
Sorry? How is capped cells not indicative of the honey being ready?
Brood is only an issue if you do not use an excluder. Were you somehow envisioning a situation where the flow frames would be used in the brood box? I can think of no other reason for there to be brood in the flow frames. And personally I would think the flow frames highly unsuitable for brood boxes.
1 Like
Ok, well you only see capped honey on the side of the frame, sometimes the bees cap the top & sides leaving a large semicircle in the center of the frame uncapped, sometimes that honey can be close to ripe, in that case it would be ok to take that honey. If that honey is far from being ripe, it would be unwise to take that honey. A queen excluder is not a100% guarantee you wont find the queen above it. I often find the queen above the queen excluder. It is evident straight away by the presence of brood in the honey frames. In those cases I remove the queen excluders, take them home, find the gap/gaps, repair them before putting them back in again. The queen excluders I use are the exact queen excluders used in the Flow videos. I only live about a 4 hr. drive away from them so a lot of the beekeeping equipment in the flow videos is much the same as I use. Every time I extract honey, I have to cut drone brood away from the odd honey frame. Sometimes a worker will become a drone layer even with the presence of a queen in the bottom box. It doesnât happen all that much, but by inspecting every frame, you find it & cut it out to save getting larvae juice mixed in the honey. There is no substitute for inspecting every frame before taking the honey. The issue of the queen above the queen excluder & the odd drone larvae in the honey frames is no big deal, itâs just something I live & cope with. About 4 years ago I uploaded a video on youtube where I found the queen above the queen excluder. PS, Iâm back from checking out that video, the title is âbeekeeping: queen found above queen excluderâ. Youâll see exactly what Iâm talking about. Also I watched another video taken at the same place where I show the honey I take, if you can understand my accent, youâll be able to see exactly what Iâm talking about in relation to ripe vs unripe. That videos title is âbeekeeping: winter robbing.â Youâll see how I put a frame back in the hive, even though it was 2/3 capped, top & sides. I tasted the honey in the uncapped section & determined it was unripe.
its in one of the videos (i think it is the flow hive brood check vid) where Cedar states they made the cells in the flow frames a certain size that was not attractive for brood development and that bee keepers can not use the queen excluder to be âexperimentalâ. As a newbie and getting the concept drilled in by experienced beeks that having windows is not a substitute for regular hive checks.
Thanks. I will. So far Iâm still refining the design. My flow frame isnât due to arrive until December so Iâm working to a quite relaxed timetable.
Noddyc, with respect, if those experienced beeks are prepared to spend time with you & give you free advice, it could be possible that they are right.
That cell size was one one of the smart things I quite like about the flows. My father uses frames with foundation, but I plan on going to headers in the brood boxes with my own hive. Bees are smart, in a âyou will bee assimilatedâ sort of way ; -)
If you make it easy for them to make it easy for you they generally do so!
As far as capped and uncapped go, for extracting I look to see a frame to be pretty solidly capped to those exposed edgesm with frames more capped than not on the outerside. Our girls seem to usually move from inside to outside and from center top, down as they fill. Not always of course, but generally.
I suspect the flows are going to significantly change how beeks, particularly the small apiarist, gauges extraction. It will be interesting to see as we all begin to incorporate the flow frames into our hives and begin to have a wide body of experience working with them what we all discover about what the bees actually âdoâ with them.
Other areas of hive management will be less impacted, and hive care will remain pretty much the same, but extraction? This is where we are ALL going to be learning a great deal!
4 Likes
@Rodderick found out what your chimney is used for ⌠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQTicZSyWR4&list=PL_SQWgs2bK3m3dAbmTWTcwvAAFxyvP5lK watch the whole thing but from 4;20 the chimney
3 Likes
Haha⌠thats very funny!
The standard flow hives are looking pretty cool. We will be showing everyone pictures soon. Stay tunedâŚ
2 Likes
Thanks for update Jake. Intrigued and excited!
Yes both the complete Flow Hive and Flow Box come with a viewing window.
The pictures are here for the Flow Hive - http://www.honeyflow.com/about-flow/flow-hive/p/65
and here for the Flow Super - http://www.honeyflow.com/about-flow/flow-super/p/64
If you are modifying an existing box for Flow Frames, the modification pdf is here - http://www.honeyflow.com/about-flow/flow-hive-assembly-modifications/p/142