Are there any Sri Lankans who are using flow hives (frames) in Sri Lanka ? I just want to know whether Flow Hives(frames) are suitable for Asian bees in Sri Lanka (Apis cerana indica) or not.
Welcome to the forum. Hopefully others from Sri Lanka will contact you.
Two thoughts about you using a flow hive is that your queens being smaller I wonder if the queen excluder that Flow Hive supply would still prevent the queen passing through it, or do you use a different sized QX there, that would be the right measurements to fit a Flow Hive box?
Second, and more important is to know if the bees would work the cell size of a Flow Frame. If they regards the cells as too wide maybe a Flow Hive wouldn’t be suitable with your bees, and I simply can’t say. We don’t have the Asian Honey bee Australia.
If you have a Government Department of Primary Industries they might be able to advise you.
Regards
Hello @Peter48, good thoughts, thank you, I am also considering the size of a bee and whether Asian bees like to fill Flow frames with nectar or not.
That is why I asked if your bees naturally made cells are smaller than the Flow Hive cells, if the cells are much smaller in your frames then it is possible the bees will not use the larger ones in a Flow frame.
I guess as you have five hives already you are wanting the extra hive for bees for honey production or crop pollination or both?
Cheers
Welcome to the Flow forum.
There is a very active Japanese beekeeper who has a Flow frame setup with an Apis cerana colony. They may not be the indica sub-species, but that shouldn’t matter. If he has success, I think you could too.
Yes, extra hive for bees for honey production and crop pollination. Also I am curious about FlowHive frames and want to give a try.
@Dawn_SD Okay, Thank you
So as I have already said if your Asian honey bee normally make a much smaller comb it is a possible the bees would not use a Flow Frame. It makes me think this might be the problem as there is members on the forum from Sri Lanka and they haven’t come in on your thread with any information at all, which is sad, and makes me think the Asian honey bee not be suitable with a Flow Hive.
The Asian honey bee is regarded as a pest in Australia and not allowed into the country but I did suggest you measure your cell sizes to compare the size, but you haven’t come back with any measurements.
Can you not measure the distance across a cell of a frame that your bees have made?
I will measure, I saw in a local book, 27-39 cells per square inch, thickness of the honeycomb is 5/8 inch.
Could you be able to check the usability of Flowhive in Sri Lankan bees?