Please don’t do that at this time of year. I wouldn’t do it at all, unless I had a purchased new queen that I needed to install. I really think it is better to let the bees supersede the queen themselves, if they want to. They usually choose to do this when there is a good nectar flow and plenty of drones, in Spring or early Summer.
Dawn is right, timing is everything & our bees are in winter prep mode in this area so raising a new queen is not on the agenda. Besides, it’s safe to assume that a first year colony won’t produce enough honey for the beekeeper to take a harvest. So, don’t worry & read up on how you might help your colony survive the winter (it’s coming…
)
We decided to take off our honey super, so the bees could focus more on
their winter stash. Been feeding the sugar water for a couple weeks and we
have gone through about 20 pounds of sugar. I hope it holds them over for
the winter. How has your season gone Eva?
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If you’re worried, you can get some bakers fondant, place a slab on some waxed paper, and lay that directly on top of the frames in the upper deep brood chamber.
An Imrie shim http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/8-Frame-Imirie-Shim offers a little space under the inner cover for the fondant. They come in 8 or 10 frame sizes.
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Hey Jenny - just lost a hive to wax moths, sorry to say. The other hive is doing great though & has accepted all
the queenless moth hive refugees. My next step is to get my moisture quilt ready & put it on top of the good hive. I made it custom so there’s an Imrie shim-sized gap inside the bottom for a sugar patty to fit under as @Anon described. Worked great last year!
Did you harvest any honey? I took one frame from my strongest hive, SO wonderful 
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Near Harrisburg here, work in the city, live in the country raising two boys and what… 40,000 girls. what was I thinking.
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So Eva, how did your season go?
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Weird but good I guess! Right now I have a full medium ready to harvest from a double brood box captured swarm 
and my Flow frames are almost full again after the hive swarmed (yep I captured my own swarm 
) and took a few roadies with them…and one more single deep box from a split that might need to be combined going into fall soon.
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Hello, do you still sell bees and nucs ? we are planning to start in southeastern PA
Hello and welcome to the Flow forum!
If you don’t get an answer from anyone on this thread, I can highly recommend bee packages from Mann Lake bee supplies. They are excellent quality and lovely gentle bees:
https://www.mannlakeltd.com/shop-all-categories/hive-components/bees/delivery/nationwide-delivery
Im planning to get a flow hive in SE PA area (chester county) - did your flow hive work out well and did you need to do something different from 7 frame flow hive 2 ?
@Eva is in Pennsylvania too, and I believe that she has had great success with her Flow hive(s). Perhaps she will comment now that I have tagged her… 
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Hi there, I’m in Montgomery county PA and as Dawn says, have had good results with my Flow classic. Let me know what questions you have!
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