I took my flow frames out of the deep freezer about 2 weeks ago. Please them on the double deep brood boxes on the 11. I got out my refractometer and opened the where we place the harvesting tubes to get honey out to test. Most frames were close to 18%, just a little over. I am thinking, I will be harvesting next saturday. I am amazed how quickly they have filled this up.
no I have not feed them in over a month. Maybe even 2 months.
Is that an old pic? I don’t see much in the cells.
that photo is from today. if they keep moving like they have over the past week they will have it all filled up by mid week 
Looking at it from the side it is amazing
Have totally filled up that frame thus far in only one week,
even looking at this image, just 5 hours later and we can see progress
Check your cells are closed.
The bottom channels look full, but the cells look very empty.
That’s what I see. The channels have some honey and nastiness in them, there are a handful of cells half full mostly center/bottom but for the most part it looks empty. Maybe the rest of the frame is full but this 1/100th of a view is deceiving?
Reading between the lines, I think @Martydallas may have lifted the frames and inspected them. Knowing his perfectionist streak, I am sure that he will not make the rookie mistake of harvesting unripe frames. 
Your bees are tricky like mine. I had 3kg of capped honey in each of the two central frames and it looked less full than that. Funnily enough the frame I last harvested - on Good Friday - now appears to have almost full cells on the end now. I don’t know if they have filled and capped it all because I haven’t inspected but they have a mind of their own, that’s for sure!
Wow Marty, just reread your post - they have filled the frames in two weeks? That is very fast.
Thank You Dawn_SD for the “Perfectionist streak” 
I am still a rookie though.
Last year, they filled the frames 90% never the end and they never capped any of it. I saw that they were start to consum it so did harvest on 7/17 last year and then again late fall to remove the flow frames for winter and again they never cap any of it.
That is why I got a “Refractometer” and as stated in my first post I was seen the frames full and decided to get it out and check to see. Most were above 19% below 19.5% a few were right at 18% where it needs to be.
Just went out an looked thur the window and did see that the cells are starting to be capped. Not closed up at all just starting the cupping of being capped.
I maybe a pipe Dream to harvest in a week, I will not do it to soon. Next week will be really tough for me anyway for I am going to the Texas “pre Buringingman” Flipside next weekend so likely the weekend after Memorial Day.
All input is greatly appreciated. I have not been as active this year on this forum as I fill I should and glad to see there is a good team keeping all safe and sound 
Glad to see you again Marty - safe travels & maybe a pic or two from your festival doings? 
Well it turns out this year the girls are filling up the frames more evenly. Unlike last year, they started at the entrance inside and worked toward the back, never filling up the last couple of vertical cells toward the back of the hive. This year, they are doing similar to the same thing but leaving the top unfilled and putting honey in the backside where I can see it. Having done a hive inspection on Friday is what revealed this. I do think I will be harvesting honey around early to mid June. Not because the girls will not have it ready for me, you’ll be the first opportunity I have.
My estimate is that the frames are about 75% full, zero capped. Everyone was correct about seeing honey pulling at the bottom of the frames. That has now sensed totally stopped. And looking through the frame into the next set of cells beyond what is physically visible to the outside I can now see honey being filled up there as well. Hopefully this year they will fully Everything. Regardless unlock and await on them capping it all before harvesting if it is testing out lower than 18.2% moisture, according to my refractometer.
Another train of thought here, as anyone harvested one or two frames just to force work on others?
OK here is from this morning, Just 18 days from putting the Flow Frames on the hive.
May have time to do a Hive inspection today. Just did not last week, really don’t want to go in today. Even if I went in today, I am not sure if I could do anything about it. I leave for Boston for a conference, this coming saturday for a week and work will be a bear this week.
Cool photo:
Based on this photo, I would go in today and make sure the top brood box is not honey bound. If it is, uncap and extract a few of those frames.
Again, this is deceiving because we can only see a fraction of each frame. Are the frames full from end to end?
Honey bound? I assume that means totally full of honey? what would be the issues with that? I like the idea of harvesting 2 frames. I do have a refractometer, so I could pull the honey that is closest to 18%. As I said in an earlier post, some was testing out at 18% already.
Too much honey will shrink the brood nest down really small. The bees need space to store 75 lbs of unripe honey in order to make 25 lbs of ripe honey.
So if the top brood box is honey bound, uncap some of those brood nest frames, extract and replace immediately. This will open up the brood nest.
Again, the picture is deceiving. Are the frames totally full from end to end or is there still empty portions?
When I hope to harvest 3 supers full of honey, I give them 5 supers.
I harvested 2 frames. Red_Hot was correct they were likely honey bound. Hindsight is 2020, and if not we have a bigger problem I just need to learn from some of this is well.
What I wish I would’ve done and what I will likely do on Friday is go into the main brood box where they are filling up frames with honey close to the edge, remove those
The frames are harvested for the most part were right at 18.1%. I harvested one quarter of the frames at a time. So that I could test the moisture content. One of the quarters was above 19.5% I will be the one consuming that honey not selling it or giving it to friends
2 frames, I got just over 21.5# NOT 21.5# 12.5# sorry
Here are some photos I took of me harvesting as well as photo of three days after I harvested. They are already feeling the cells backup.
Wow- nice harvest! your honey looks really dark to me? Do you know what they foraged on?
No not quite yet. Each batch I harvested last year I sent off to the University of Austin Texas to be tested. Have not sent this batch off just yet I do plan on doing so. Other times it was Maple and a lot of poison ivy
Even a broken clock is right twice a day lol
Very nice looking harvest. We should start a honey exchange; that looks like our buckwheat honey.
