Amateur beekeeper here! With some questions about what has happened in my flow frames this week.
This is my first season with a Flow Hive & haven’t yet had a harvest.
After a somewhat slow start to coach the bees into the Flow super, 1 week ago I was shocked to see that 2 frames had filled in a 48hr period. Prior to this the frames weren’t full & we also had 3 days of heavy rain.
Then over the past week I have observed the bees removing the honey…
Each day there has been less and less in the viewing screen.
Sunday-
Did you had a chance to inspect those frames (while they looked full or otherwise)? Hard to say from the picture of the back window for sure but it doesn’t look like the cells are totally filled or capped. It could be that the bees are just moving it around and dewatering it or maybe they are just using it.
Hi Sam, I’m also on the Sunny Coast. The colonies are building up to swarm strength at the moment. Once they get to that strength, they start preparing to swarm. Your honey super looks to be full of bees. Are you doing any inspections apart from the rear viewing window? Do the bees have access to the roof cavity? If so, are bees occupying that space?
The honey on the ends of the frames disappearing after 3 days of rain sounds pretty normal to me. Remember that bees use honey to fuel their everyday activities. If no honey comes in for a few days, they need to draw on reserves. They will use unsealed honey first. Are you physically inspecting the flow frames in order to ascertain how full they are? Other locals have found that the rear viewing window is not a true indication of how full the frames are.
Hi Sam, like @Dawn_SD said, I’m in Buderim. My thinking is to keep the plug out, so that the bees have somewhere for the increased population to expand into. However with that in mind, you’d need to lift the roof on a regular basis, say once a fortnight in order to monitor the population level.
We had some nice rain last night, I guess you did two. With more rain forecast for today, I would choose a finer day to do an inspection, when the bees wont be so defensive. If you do go ahead with an inspection today, I’d recommend using plenty of smoke & keep your smoker going throughout the inspection.
