Hi Dan, those photos are very clear & open to all sorts of theories & interpretation. The fact remains that Heron must have decided to extract the honey from the frames away from the hive to combat the flooding issue he must have previously experienced.
By having the frames out of the hive like he did, he was able to see what was going on to cause the flood.
I speculated that it could be on account of wet caps, then I started to wonder if it was on account of the caps being close to the moving mechanism, similar to a traditional frame that is capped, concaved. Then I wondered if it was a combination of both or something different altogether.
None of us are pioneers of Flow Hives, that was done before the Flow Hive was even known about and named. It was Cedar and Stu that were the pioneers of the Flow Hive. I have bought 2 Flow Hives but I can’t figure out that could even cross my mind that I was pioneering in any way in the development of the Flow Hive, as I have said, the hard yards were already done. We are nothing more than the consumers of the product.
I have a Hyundai car but you would say I was a long way over the top if I claimed to be anything more than a consumer of their product.
Regards
Yes Dan, I can see it without the straight edge. We saw the frame flexing at the top, I’m not sure that the flexing went all the way to the bottom. We figured that the flexing would cease with the use of 2 keys opposing each other to cancel out the flex.
We figured that bridge comb between the tops of the frames & crown board would also hold the frame from flexing, however if the frames were removed & checked before harvest, that advantage would be gone.
Apparently after several harvests, the flooding issue subsides. That could be on account that the wax has built up, so therefore the wax caps become thicker & less prone to splitting.
If you do regular brood checks and remove the Flow frames one by one without lifting the entire box with them in it (I find it way too heavy), you inspect them regularly in reality of course. It wouldn’t need be a specific inspection related to the harvest or immediately before it. The bees don’t take long to wax everything back up… a week would be heaps of time. The’d probably seal up all sorts of flex related gaps. You should hold the straight edge up… You’ll be astounded!
I did just now, that’s quite a bow. Whether that caused the flood or not, who knows.
Maybe I’ll take mine down & get the bees to fill them before the jellybush starts. I’ll start a new thread with my findings. I’ll do what you suggest so that no honey spills onto the brood. Plus I’ll leave the frames in the super as I harvest.
Jeff, I’ll bet any money it’s overflowed because the bottom chamber has overfilled. As liquid cannot gravity flow uphill it is the only way the honey can exit the cells. Reducing the volume flowing into the chamber by opening in increments solves this.
As Flow frames are tilted backward there will be an air gap at the high point in the front in the collection chamber which could, when under pressure, escape by pushing the honey back out through the cells hence a breather to allow this air to escape.
My knowledge and understanding of the Flow frames is from 3 years of using them and 10 times that in the engineering field. I did not however keep bees prior to this so know nothing about traditional bee keeping…
I know exactly what you’re saying. I have to punch a tiny hole in the Australian produced olive oil tins to allow the oil to freely flow. However just looking closely again at the top photo, it does appear that the wet caps moved with the mechanism. You can see clearly the one in the middle where the caps separated, they don’t line up.
@SouthEastScarp Hi Terence, I discounted that because the base of rail of the box the frame is sitting in, which is adjacent to the frame, appears as straight as a die when I line the straight edge up to it.
@Webclan quote: “There, no reason to slam all new beekeepers just because they started with flow hives. Some of us are not blindfoldedly doing it just for honey money or to sell nucs.
The only thing I don’t like is people getting bees and never managing them. And that’s sure not flow specific”.
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I don’t know anyone who slams new beekeepers just because they started with flow hives. I get lots of people seeking advice on beekeeping. I’ll help anyone, whether they have a flow hive OR a traditional hive.
