Help Needed with Brood Box. Murwillumbah

Beekeeping - Basics
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We’ve had our Flow Hive for a year and our bees for 13 months.
One of the people in the Flow Hive community, Bob Science Master, has been our mentor and helper since we got the bees.
We took honey from the bees three times (only one comb at a time) and the Flow Hive is great.

We had a few personal problems in the past six months (topped up with the floods three weeks ago and the extra amount of work…)
As a result we have not looked after the brood box at all.

We decided to do this today and we found that we were overwhelmed, the brood box combs all stuck together and we really upset the bees trying to loosen them up. Also we noticed quite a lot of SHB!

Our dear friend Bob is in Europe for three and a half months and so we are at a loss for a helping hand.
We live outside of Murwillumbah in Chillingham. Can anyone come and help us?
There are beekeepers around but they are rather prejudiced against the Flow Hive and it’s impossible to get in a conversation with them.
By the way, this is our hive. We made a hybrid hive as both me and my partner are 68 yo and we can’t lift heavy weights
So we have a long hive with Flow on the right and Brood on the left. Also, check our hive stand: “look ma: no legs” it is suspended so the ants can’t get to it!

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Just a comment about your set up, (I can’t help with the questions sorry)…I think I first came across skyhooks when reading Rupert the Bear. I didn’t know they were still in use!

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Skyhooks? is that the legless base? We never saw any, we just thought it would be a good idea!

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Hi Elyane, your hive looks awesome.
If you don’t find anyone more experienced to assist you, I am prepared to come by and help you out. I am helping a few new beekeepers with their hives, my way of learning. I will be back from overseas 25 April.
I will also have a look to see how Bob’s bees are.
In the meantime, have you emptied and refilled that SHB trap?
Let me know how you go with a helper.
Missing my bees, but found a hive on the land where we rented via airb&b on the Big Island. How likely is that?

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Hello! Thank you very much. Davec is coming to help us thank goodness.
I needed help with inspecting the brood box as indeed I haven’t changed the SHB traps, however a lot of them drop in the trays and are suffocated in the Diatomite, so that’s working!
Glad to know you’re helping lots of newbies. Cheers.

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