Yesterday I harvested all three of my Flow frames. They had each been harvested separately once before, 41,34, and 27 days earlier. The visible ends of the frames were capped and I assumed the rest of the frames were too.
Total harvest was 11.5kg, 3.8kg per frame.
The honey density was 1.43. This indicates the honey was fully ripe.
How wonderful, well done to your girls and you!!
Down south in Victoria all the trees are putting on growth and are not even looking as if they are going to flower, so here’s hoping they get into gear in the next few months.
Thanks Suses. I have seen lots of pieces about Flow frame harvests and I’ve seen estimates of yield per frame but actual reported measurements have been a bit sparse. I took some video footage of my work yesterday and I will review it sometime soon. I might post it if it seems interesting.
Things have turned really hot and dry here. My girls still seem to be finding nectar and they are busy enough. We usually get a break in the season about now and then it rains for the next five months!
(Edit 31/12: I watched my biggest colony for a few minutes this afternoon. Zero pollen coming in. Will check again in the morning.)
(Edit 01/01: Happy New Year from Oz. I did check early and saw no pollen coming in. Then I did another check at 8am local time and there is some pollen on some of the girls. Not a lot, perhaps one in five has noticeable pollen. I saw at least two colours so they have at least two sources. They are such good girls!)
G’day Bob, that’s a great result. Each frame must have been absolutely chock-a-block. There’s nothing like that happening up my way. Happy New Year to you both. cheers
lovely 
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Damn, I just pulled 10+kg out of a 10 frame Ideal box and thought I was in the pound seats… Looks like I need to move my operation to your part of the world!
Proof is in the honey great work, your gails and to you for keeping them happy gals.
Well done ! That stack looks great. I’m in southern Victoria where the long awaited red flowering gums are not flowering at all.
Thanks very much.
We’ve had a break in the hot weather with 121mm of welcome rain last night and a little more today. I’m expecting the nectar flow to pick up over the next few weeks. I would like to be able to harvest again in three weeks but the girls will probably need a bit longer. A week or so ago, I took two of their capped frames of honey to add to a split.
My girls are filling frames like crazy! We robbed the frame nearest the window on 31 December and now, only two weeks later they have almost fully capped it off again.
I had a few local bee keepers around yesterday and we inspected the Flow frames. They are not yet ready to harvest and our activities yesterday will slow the girls a little. I took two frames out of the brood box as a swarm control measure, and replaced them with what I call “waxicles”. This will obviously impact the bee population for a while.
Amazing…!!
I travel a bit and was overseas for 4 months earlier this year. The honey I harvested on my return was very dark in colour but very tasty nonetheless.
Three weeks ago I noticed a decrease in bee activity in the Flow hive. The colony had gone queenless and there was no brood. A few empty queen cells indicated my girls had done their best to requeen.
What to do? I drained the Flow frames and moved the Flow hybrid super to a strong colony. The original colony was still quite strong so I’ve added a 5 frame nuc to give them a queen. I used two sheets of newsprint as a temporary separator for the girls to chew out.
I will be home again in two months and will check in then.
