Hi Friends,
Can we take a moment to be as excited as me about our twins being in their bee suits??!?! They have wanted one for ages but we needed to wait for their last growth spurt for a bit! 4 years old and already wanting to save the world one bee at a time
I’m pleased to be able to contribute to this old conversation.
Happiness came in the form of some beautiful frames of honey, which I extracted today. It’s amazing the difference just one or two weeks makes during a honey flow. Forgive me for showing off just a few of the frames. They’ve been quite a while coming, on account of an unusually wet summer.
Finding honey frames like these in hives is what makes me go Wowwww!!! & gives me a reason to get up & at-em before breakfast, which didn’t happen til 9.30 yesterday.
Gorgeous, how is Pete doing btw? I take it you guys still keep in contact?
Hi & thank you Fred. Peter was going alright when I spoke to him before Christmas. He was driving himself around then, so that’s an improvement.
Breathtaking, Jeff!! Those frames are magnificent!
Hi & many thanks Cathie. This rain will put a stop to any more like those frames for a little while. I wont say “I’m over it” because last time I said that, it didn’t rain for 6 months.
PS I just checked the weather forecast. They predict a possibility of 120-200mm up here & 80-150 in Brisbane.
Jeff is excited to get these beautiful frames of honey.
The honey Flow has started, and does not look like stopping any time soon.
I have some similar photos to share from the 6 boxes of honey from out of 8 hives that I robbed & extracted today.
I had another 7 boxes to extract today, 3 days since the last extraction. The 13 boxes came from a third of my hives that I visit once every 3 weeks, for generally 3-5 boxes. I had to get the second half done because I want to rob another third next week, with the remaining third the week after.
Here’s a frame that reminds me of “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly”. I got 2 out of 3 right, because there’s nothing bad about it.
Just an update on the S.E. Qld. honey flow. It’s been hectic with splitting, repairing & building new hives, bottom boards & lids. I even resorted to placing nucs in broccoli boxes. I’m over splitting, it’s time to start harvesting honey, on account that most of the honey supers are filling up. Sadly today is the first day of me culling brood. I don’t have any photos of culling brood, but I do have a photo from today’s harvest. Wilma will upload shortly.
And here is two from yesterday
I kept robbing & extracting honey every day until the last hive 2 days ago. That resulted in just over one ton, or a thousand kilos from 41 boxes of honey. 67x15 kilo buckets.
I’m returning to swarm prevention measures & making sure that all my 10 frame nucleus hives don’t get too full.
The honey flow is continuing. A lot of the frames that weren’t ready to rob a week ago are almost ready now.
Hello and welcome to the Flow forum! 
I have used that concept successfully many times in humid coastal California. Just put the ideal super, with frames in it, on top of the Flow super (or uncapped super if your hive is a traditional hive). The bees may well start to fill the ideal too. The expanded hive volume helps create a drier atmosphere inside the hive. Make sure that you have reduced the entrance to 15cm to help laminar flow. @JeffH does this by blocking off the middle of the entrance, leaving openings on either side of the entrance. This probably also helps with laminar flow when the bees are fanning to cool the hive. Finally, if you have a screened bottom board, make sure that the slider or tray is in place, otherwise you will be letting a ton of humid air into the hive through that big area in the bottom
By the way, how are you in QLD when your profile says US? Then I notice a spam post for bee suits on another thread. Maybe @Freebee2 or @KieranPI could look into this? Thanks guys!
Hi Dawn, thanks for thinking of, and mentioning me. I was slow to look at @DavidLee_Parker 's profile, until you mentioned the US. That’s an interesting observation. I had the idea that Brisbane had a sister city in the US, further research revealed near San Francisco. However I doubt if SE Qld. has a sister location in the US.
Thanks to @DavidLee_Parker , plus yourself for putting a break between my posts on this thread. I’ve got a feeling that I’ll be putting more updates in the coming weeks, without the decapping honey frame photos.
Rather than upload photos of my recent honey flow, I decided to upload a video.
cheers
