Hi everyone, so I just carried out a decent inspection yesterday.
5 month in and the super is onwith the flow frames. It’s been on for about 3 months now.
The girls have taken to the flow frames nicely. However they seem to avoiding certain sides and finishing their work on the frames as if there’s an invisible barrier. See pic.
Also noticed a couple of grubs/ caterpillar on the corflute tray underneath.
Any advice or guidance much appreciated.
Also if anyone with experience is near Brisbane ( Upper Kedron) is love to have another set of experienced eyes for our next inspection.
Let me know if you’re keen to help.
I’m at Coolum Beach and happy to give you a morning if you PM me. I have found this Spring a couple of my hives where the numbers are still growing that the Queens are laying eggs on the warmer side of the hive and storing honey in the cool side of the brood box. Bees will often prefer one side of the super but over time will use all the space available to them.
I must say seeing the debris on the boards is a bit concerning, I remove my bottom boards every two weeks to clean them and get a visual idea of what is happening in the hive. Cleanliness in the hive is very important to a healthy hive.
Cheers Ben
My Flow hive has a standard bottom board now. I’ve just pulled apart my Flow bottom board, I don’t like the set up at all. Too many places for hiding pests. I tried and tried but gave up. I’m fitting a solid board and redesigning. In the process I found the mesh is aluminium not stainless. It goes out of shape too easily, it leaked bees.
do you see that pattern repeated on all the frames? I can’t quite tell from the photo but a very definite possibility is that those cells they have ignored are not properly in the closed position. When you set up flow frames it is a good idea to turn the key multiple times and visually check the cells to ensure all rows have moved into the closed position. Then after the frames are in operation- when they are opened for harvest- and then re-closed after- again you can turn the key multiple times and place it on both sides and the center of the slot.
If that pattern is identical across all your frames it may be some other strange issue to do with the bees preference.
Hi Ben looking at a download of your pic it does look like those cells are open. Not 100 % but I would go ahead and reset those open and close again anyway.
Your slider shows warmth poo, a small hive beetle and probably the larva is a wax moth too. The fine debris is likely a mix of chewed up wax and some pollen. Looks normal enough to me, but as was said above, the quantity may be a bit on the high side and a careful look in the brood box is needed.
I agree with @Semaphore, it looks like the left side of the Flow frame has open cells. The bees can’t seal them properly if they are misaligned like that, so you will need to put the Flow key all they way in and try to close them properly, by turning it several times in the left, middle and right of the channel. It may be easier if you harvest the frame first, otherwise you will have to take care not to accidentally open the frame and break the cappings.
Skeggley, you have no idea how happy I am to have read that, One of my hives always has bees on the cor-flute and I couldn’t figure it out as to how the bees got there. I assumed the mesh was stainless steel.
I will have to look at that now as you have filled in the gap for me - so to say.
Cheers
I’m also finished w SBBs, decided to cover the mesh on one last year with a nicely fitting scrap of cedar shake from an old roofing job & will modify the rest like this. The only slight hassle with the solid bottom is having to use the front entrance for OAV treatments. Not easy prying a well-propolized entrance reducer out!
Sorry, off topic! I would think you’d want to harvest the frames first before trying to close up just that section - looks great otherwise!
With you, @Faroe and @Eva getting together with you light hearted humor and taking us all for a walk in the park it gives me a chuckle. Thanks girls.
Regards
Hey @Beemanben, I’m not far from you in Keperra. Happy to try and coordinate some time to look at your hive. If you would like to private message me, we can exchange phone numbers. I’m not an expert myself but have had bees for about 2 1/2 years now and have dealt with a few challenges along the way.
Hi everyone, so I just carried out a decent inspection yesterday.
As well as it being in regards to warm poo 
nothing like a good ribbing between mates and is always in fun.