Flow hive and new family of bees

Beekeeping - Basics
21

Classic! No rush to do anything. If you look on a nice day in about a week you should be able to spot the eggs.

Have fun.

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22

I got my nuc in one of the hive Doctor boxes, and itā€™s a great box for transfer and a short time.
Coincidentally I took same nuc box apart today for a thorough cleaning and sterilization and found lots of dirt in the hidden folds, including wax moth.
My nuc was only in there for a couple of weeks, 9 weeks ago.
Just beware of that issue. Ideal for SHB and wax moth.
Bit of an effort to take them apart to clean, but itā€™s worth it.

23

Yeah, Iā€™ve found wax moth hidden in the corners of queen excluders just waiting for a moment to pounce. Horrible little things!

24

Yesterday I found a just hatched wax moth larva incubating from the fluff of the reverse table cloth on the core flue board. Now - THAT I did not expect. I think there might have been eggs in the boardā€™s tubes and it wheezled itā€™s way through the tape and cloth. At least I found it at daily inspection and cleaning of board.

25

The only problem with this style of box is that they donā€™t respect the bee space between the end of the frame and the end of the box (the space bees use to walk around/between the galleries made by the Hoffman edges) as the ā€˜ledgeā€™ that supports the top bar of the frame completely fills this gap.

It may not be a major issue, but be aware of it if using plastic foundation in the frames in the nuc boxes as this can restrict movement/circulation. If you are using the solid plastic style foundation, punch out the ā€˜communication holes/cornersā€™ of the frames if you plan to use them for extended periods.

Other than that, I agree these make great nuc boxes, just make sure you donā€™t pick the short straw and end up with the job of folding them!

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26

The bees will be fine. Think of the places they call home when left to their own devices lol

27

Hi Kiwi, Just wanted to add if your supplier has given you a frame of honey then it wouldve meant the bees were short of honey and that was meant to give them a boost, if its not looking great a photo would help but if you freeze it for 48 hours that should kill all eggs of any insect that has contaminated it and if you still are not feeding it to the bees, then please supplement them with a 1:1 sugar feed. Ive recently supplied a nucleus hive in a corflute nuc box identical with an extra frame of honey for the same reason, Its not a good season for bees in Australia and New Zealand (generally).

28

Agreed! I supplied it to boost the hive when transferred to the bigger box. Interestingly, it was from the swarm box and they had just built out a full wall of honey and pollen. So, itā€™s their honey anyways!

Mel. Let us know how you are getting along. Paul

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