Honey Harvesting

Hello, traditionally a sign of when the frames are ready to be harvested is when the honey cells are mostly waxed over, in the flow hive, if this was followed, what would clear the cells of wax again so the bees could access to allow them to deposit more honey?

The bees themselves. In my hive, the cells were cleared of cappings and resealed along the shear gaps with wax within 2 days this year. Fantastic to see it. :blush:

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yep- like Dawn said- the bees do it. When you operate the flow mechanism most of the wax cappings remain unbroken. However instantly the bees realise that the cells underneath are now empty and they set about chewing off and removing all the wax cappings. It can take a few days for them to remove everything. Once they have removed the cappings they repair the inside of the cells and get everything ready for the next lot of nectar to be stored.

here are some pictures from my hive- I harvested last week- the bees have almost completely prepared the frame for more honey- there is a section they have ignored so far that still has cappings on it (immediately after I harvested the entire frame looked like that)- I expect that will be gone over the next few days. If you look closely you can see the bees have repaired many of the center lines of the cells which are broken when you operate the mechanism allowing the honey to flow out):

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