Hi Louise, I am delighted, thank you for the update. FYI, I always open my frames in 20% increments to avoid flooding in the hive. When the Flow tube gets completely full, you can get back pressure which pushes honey into the hive. Anyhow, you know that now, but my video from last year could have saved you the experience! 
You can see from the video that we also had a âfanning assistâ super on top to get the Flow frames capped. 
If you still have a nectar flow, they will refill them. I would leave them on until late July.
When you start moving stuff around in the hive, the bees take that as stimulus to start moving stuff around too. 
They may have moved it down into the brood area (preserving their stores for winter), or they may have evened up the honey in the Flow frames. Hard to know, but they do this all the time.
YEP! That would have saved us learning âby experienceâ. I have harvested in the last 2 years without this issue. Maybe lucky, maybe the frames were not quite as full. ButâŚI certainly know now. That back flow is exactly what happened!
Thanks for your advice, Dawn. I know you are âlocalâ to me in CA and similar climate in SD to where I live on central coast, so I value your advice. My thought was to leave it until we return from England which would be middle of JulyâŚso end works for me! Thanks!
Sadly, our nectar flow is over for now. However, it may restart until the end of July, so I am leaving my supers on:
Hi Dawn,
Will you get a Flow frame harvest from any of your hives this year?
I forgot to mention in my Flow extraction today that the moisture content is 17%. Doesnât get much better than that! We have had a late, weird spring. Lots of May Gray. Spple tree just starting to blossom! I think we have a couple more weeks of nectar flow here.
Is that weight a 2 brood set up with flow super?
My 1 broodbox plus flow super hives are lingering between 35 and 52 kg, with the 52kg one close to full (cedar hive).
Is yours cedar or pine?
Wonder how much heavier the pine hives are. Failed to weigh them when they were empty.
We can never tell when or if a flow will be on. Eucalyptus varieties flower so sporadically.
In any case, my weight graphs go up and down all year.
Not sure yet. None of the frames are full at this point.
All cedar 8-frame hive, with a pine slatted rack. Two deep brood boxes, one wood-framed metal queen excluder, cedar Flow super and a pine inner cover (coz it has an upper entrance in the rim). It was over 90kg last year when the Flow frames were capped. The lowest weight I have seen in winter is 38.5kg - slatted rack and double deeps, super removed.
I just thought I would post a photo of my first Flow harvest of 2018 that I was previously so concerned about. After following Dawnâs advice and adding a honey super on top to aid in drying and capping of the remaining uncapped nectar (which occurred within a week of so doing), I harvested all of the Flow frames in my hive (6 frames) over a period of 2 days and ended up with 2.5 gallons of lovely honey with 17% moisture. Thanks all for a good discussion. Learned a lot through this process.
And a nice looking color it is too. Glad it all went well for you.
Regards
It did surprise me somewhat that it was as golden as it was. Normally this early it is lighterâŚor has been in the past. But, this has been a strange year for the flora.
It has been strange down here to. Some spring bushland trees have been fooled with our âweirdâ out of season weather where spring flowering flora has flowered just before the drop in temperature for winter, we didnât have the long Autumn we normally have either. Winter here in only about 2 months till it begins to get back to shorts and T shirts again.
Cheers
I am so delighted that it worked as hoped, Louise. Thank you for the feedback, it makes the effort of posting so much more worthwhile, and now your experience can help others who read about it.
Thatâs a great harvest, however Iâm sure the bees would still have finished capping the frames within a week or so without adding the extra super. Thatâs just my thoughts on the subject.
Not meaning to put cold water on Dawnâs idea. However, the way I see it, if we add another super, the bees could start building in that instead of finishing off the frames we want them to.
What Iâve been doing for quite a few years now is, if I remove a box from a strong colony, I always weaken out some of the brood as well to prevent swarming. Only because a colony swarmed once, shortly after I removed a super.
I was a little keen to know the water content of at least one of the 75 per cent capped framesâŚjust to give an indication if they were not capping them for some reason other than water content, particularly with the end window full, but I totally understand @en2gen proceeding as Dawn had advised, and it worked out well.
I remember an episode of âThe Beverly Hillbilliesâ Granny had a secret common cold remedy. The whole episode was about Grannies secret commoncold remedy. Right at the end of the episode it was revealed that if you take a dose of Grannies mixture, after 10 days your cold will be cured.
Itâs a similar situation. Some things just take time. If I see honey frames are not fully capped today, I know theyâll be fully capped some time in the future.
JeffH you may have a point. We also had a change in the weather from mostly overcast to sunny and windy. But, I also understand and appreciate Dawnâs reasoning and suggestion which may provide a strategy for others to try as well who donât anticipate a change in the weather. Also, I was anxious to get these frames harvested before going on holiday as I didnât want my hive to get honey bound. So, it worked out well all around.
Dan2, we would have tested the 75% capped frame if it had been uncapped when we went back in. However, the only frame that remained partially âuncappedâ was one where the very middle was not only uncapped but completely devoid of any nectar. That was very strange because Iâm quite sure they all at least had nectar in them the time before when we checked. Sorry I couldnât provide any further info on that.
I may not fully understand the suggestion & strategy. Are you adding an extra empty super on top of the flow super so that the bees will finish capping the honey? Thatâs all new to me & something I probably wouldnât do.
