Help! Lots of bees- add flow hive super or another brood box

Flow Hive
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Hello! I am new to bee keeping. I have a brood box full of bees and I either need to add the flow hive super or another brood box. We are having limited nectar flow from what I have been told so I am feeding them a little everyday. They have a lot of honey stores. Can I put the super on now so that the bees have room and let them make honey for the winter or do I need to just add another brood box? Can you leave the super on durning the winter so that the bees can eat the stores up there? Not sure if that makes sense…

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Hello and welcome to the Flow forum! :blush:

Based on your location, I would suggest trying to add a second brood box, especially if that is what other local beekeepers do.

I would not leave the Flow super on over winter. You will need a queen excluder below it, and if it freezes again in your part of Texas this winter, the bees may move up into the super, abandoning the queen to die on her own in the cold. Additionally, in cold weather, they put propolis on everything, and that can ruin the Flow mechanism, making harvesting difficult or even impossible.

:wink:

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Thanks so much for the input. There is so much to learn but I’m really enjoying it. Thanks again and hope you have a great day!

1 Like
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Hello all I have 2 brood boxes on and the Flow Super. Why do the bees mill about on the top of the inside cover?

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The temp on the outside of the hive is 92F. do Bee do Bee do, Eric

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Hi do Bee, it looks like your bees are up above the crown board building comb, not a bad thing & I would let them continue to do so. You may get some nice comb honey out of it. Give them a nice puff of smoke to drive them away from the edge before replacing the roof. I would check in another fortnight. If you see too many bees up there you might like to weaken the colony a bit to prevent swarming.

cheers

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thanks Jeff
It’s mid to late July here and I don’t think they’ll swarm. I’m going to try a bee-cooler (https://www.beecoolventilators.com/) to cool them off.
do Bee do Bee do, Eric

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You’re welcome doBee. Definitely do whatever you can to cool the hive. If the bee numbers continue to build in the roof cavity & you don’t want to split the colony, you might consider adding an ideal super. Some local advice could be helpful in that area.