Do people keep their flowhive always leveled with the hive angled back for honey extraction, or do you make sure to level it back to even when not extracting honey? i have received comments on my pictures of my hive that it should not be angled back so as to prevent rain entering the front of the hive…
The Flow landing board is angled down so rain is less likely to flow in despite the few degrees the hive is angled back for extraction.
Literally thousands of Flow hives cope very well being permanently angled.
1 Like
Good day.
let’s start with I am not an expert or know what is correct.
What I noticed (could be a coincidence) was that with my first hive I set in place as close…I believe there was some settling, then I put some large pavers under my it and got it close enough but maybe not perfect. I struggled with keep new virgin foundation less frames with comb from curving out. (I attributed it to soft delicate comb and gravity - I don’t know that is true or if the bees even cared)
Good news is I learned a lot about how to save and string then via rubber bands and stringing like tomatoes 
. Once I reset set the L to R level, I did not have a problem with the comb hanging out…it could be coincidence but with following two hives, I did not have same struggles with the comb…based on sample size of one, I think the left to right level helped me with nice straight comb - this could all be BS, but I did not have problems as I added hives and kept it level L to R. (I understood you are asking front to back, so maybe this not helpful)
1 Like
It isn’t BS. The left to right leveling is critical. Front to back much less so. That is for Langstroths (like the Flow hive), of course. Some hives orient the frames crossways in the hive boxes, and for those, front to back leveling is more crucial than left-right. Complicated isn’t it? But think like a bee, and you will get it right most of the time. Bees build foundationless comb by hangng down in necklace-like arcs from the top bar of the frame. If the hive is tilting so that the necklace doesn’t line up inside the frame, you will get crazy comb crossing from inside one frame to inside another, depending on the angle of the tilt of the hive. You know that already, but perhaps now you can see why…
4 Likes
Thank you…that explained better than I ever could. I would also mention I now keep rubber bands in my tool box I take to apiary…it also helpful to have them on a dowel or cardboard cylinder spaced out so not fumbling abound when need just one and hands or gloves sticky…just sayin’. Anyway I hope no one else drops a hand full of them inside the hive…it’s less than an ideal start to an inspection.
1 Like
Don’t worry, the bees will just chew them up and toss them out of the entrance. Of course, if you wanted to use them, that is a whole different problem…
1 Like