We’re sooo excited to have received, assembled, tung oiled and now installed our bees into our complete flow hive. Once concern I had this morning is that even when the frames are in the proper ‘closed’ position, they look like they’re not joined or even aligned flat for the bees to insert honey into. Should they look like hexagons that are closed or will the bees sort that out? Ours look like one side of the hexagon is forward, and the other is sort of recessed a mm or two, and there appears to be a mm or so of a gap in the cells. Is this the way they’re supposed to look? It’s the same on all 6 frames.
Thanks so much for replying so quickly! You’ve put my mind at ease. My poor bees had a horrible first day in their new home today of heavy rain and when it was dry, they seemed so disoriented. The poor bubbies! As you can tell I’ve already become very attached to them lol! My other half and I are really looking forward to seeing how they go, and I’m relieved to know that all their work won’t be in vein.
Thanks again.
And make sure 1.they are not in a cavernous box( a frame to draw each side is enough for starters)
2. the flow frames are not on.
…and if they are a new package the Flow Honey Harvesting Frames should be stored away in the garage or house for now.
Thanks everyone. They’re a full brood box that were overflowing at a beekeeper’s place that captures swarms. We spent some time during the week moving them into our flow brood box and cleaning up about 6kg of honey from the top of the original brood box, so we’re pretty sure they’re ready for the flow frames. They also have two frames (one at either end of the brood box) full of honey to feed on while it’s raining. Would that be enough?
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One frame each side full of honey is enough for a week of rain.
Do not feed them or you’ll end up with syrup in your flow frames.
They are also not aligned on purpose at the top because this is what allows the bee’s to remain undisturbed when the honey is harvested. The bee’s work away on the top without knowing the honey is being drained - because the capping remains in place on the top.
Only after the honey is drained out the bee’s notice the cells are empty and chew back the capping, and re-fill the Flow Frames with more honey.
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I have the same question. Will someone please post a pic of “open” and “closed”. Would appreciate it for comparison. I’m a newbie also, expecting my nuc in April.
I would like a picture of open and closed as well…I watched the video on Youtube but the detail was not clear.
Have you seen this page? - http://www.honeyflow.com/about-flow/how-flow-works/p/62
I will have a look for some more pictures as well.
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