I was missing my flow hive compadres and so I wish to check in and say hello from Tennessee. Last summer was a crazy drought season for me and I had to buy sugar by the 50lb sack to supplement what the bees were unable to obtain on their own. I fed them from August to October 5 gallons a day for 4 hives and it wasn’t enough. I lost 2 hives of 4 (robbing by even by neighbors hives etc) Last year I had a record spring harvest too.
At any rate this year got off to a crazy start. I have 2 strong hives and 2 nuks recently installed. We had some high winds which cracked 2 trees at the base which then caused the trees dangle over my hives and I needed to have them removed. The tree removal company worked with me for the least stress on the bees. I really don’t know if there is a better way to do this so please offer your suggestions. I closed the bees in at night with a giant paint mixing stick and stuck a 2.4 under the bee stand and used a ratchet strap to hold them together. Then my friend and I walked them across my yard like king tut visiting the citizens and left them there until the tree service removed the trees. The guys came at the crack of dawn and felled the trees and helped me move them back into position. The bees did not appear stressed in the least but then I really can’t say that for a fact, just by how it looked.
Can I stack 2 flow supers on one hive successfully? Seems a bit iffy but hey I don’t want to mess with wax frames supers so that they can fan the water off. They are filling my supers up fast this year.
I miss yall and hope your beekeeping is spectacular!
Hey Martha! Missed ya So nice to read your action-packed post, and that pic is hilarious
Glad to hear your tree guys were so helpful, my DH is one so it’s good to see proper representation of the craft. My season is off to a busy start as well. I split my two survivors very early and then both plus one of the splits (I think) swarmed a few times over the past 10 days timed perfectly with my crazy-increased workload. I captured all but one! And now I’m down to literal scraps for equipment to house them - I’m talking styrofoam boards held down with pieces of 4x4. We’re currently in a cold rainy spell that is predicted to last another week plus. I’m wondering if I might need to feed a couple of the smaller swarm captures…
I believe @Doug1 stacks 2 Fsupers on a colony, if I recall correctly. It’s definitely been discussed and it comes down to colony and nectar flow strength. Personally I put a medium on top of a Flow and that becomes their winter feed.
Like Eva says, if your colony strength warrants the extra room, super them up with Flowhive supers as you would with traditional supers. It’s fun to see them filling those supers! Good luck Martha!
I think I would feed the small colony because it stimulates wax production and the queen can out lay the workers for about 2 months. At least that’s how my bad math and bee larva to maturity concept works out. The bees can only reject the food if they don’t need it right? It’s always fun chatting it up with you Eva and I hope you have a great season.
I switched from Italians to Russians. The Russians make the Italians look bad in this area as far as production, hive size and over wintering. They are no more aggressive than the Italians are. I am getting much more production and hive size is increased as well. I am considering another flow super OR using the medium to prevent a honey bound situation. Thanks for the suggestion.
This is what the FH frames look like inside that stack…room for more honey. I actually have been impressed how much honey those frames hold.
With regards to the single brood chamber concept, what has happened previously to the hive is all about swarm control, keeping the queen laying at maximum, and keeping hive moral up (i.e. keeping those bees working). That single brood box was two brood boxes full of bees a few weeks before. The queen is found and removed from the two brood boxes, put in a new laying environment (i.e. single brood box with new foundation frames mixed with other layable frames). That sets the hive up for a swarm free period of at least a month. The regular removal of honey after this point in the season is enough to keep them from swarming. This works in my area.
Well, I had a wind even at my home and it cracked some mature 30ft trees at the base right next to my bee hives. I had to move my hives for the tree service to do their jobs and here is what I did and here is the results. My tree guys are great too they were concerned about the bees.
I shut them in with a paint sturing board and moved them King Tut style and at the crack of dawn the tree guys came removed the trees and we moved them back to the exact spots. Now it took a week or two to see what the results of the very short move were and 2 of the 4 hives had no issues. However since one super was so full I removed it to move the hive and a bee that was in there layed some drone cells. Another hive lost the queen and I can’t figure out how but shes gone. So the lesson is this, moving hives isn’t great for the bees. I had to do it and I’m glad for the experience to save my flow hives but the bees are tempermental about minor changes. Finally I understand what people are talking about when they make comments about relocating hives.
So nice to read your action-packed post, and that pic is hilarious 
