I have 6 Flow Hives. Inspecting my super, I notice that they fill the frames as if they are waiting for the queen lay in the centre of the frames. They fill and cap the front, top and back. From the rear window the frames look full. However, when inspecting, there are a shape like a football of empty cells.
Has anyone else noticed this?
Yes, it is very common, especially if the bees think that the queen needs more space. If my bees do it, I switch the outside Flow frames into the middle. Usually that works, but sometimes they clear the honey out of the “new” middle frames again, so I drain the outside frames before moving them, if they are capped.
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Thanks for that…
I thought it might have something to do with the metal QXs I’ve recently switched too. I was wondering if the workers, for some reason, did see them as a barrier.
Yes. I see the same here all the time, in both conventional Langstroth as well as Flow hives. I do use metal excluders but don’t think that makes a difference.
My understanding is that the bees are holding space for the queen who is being very productive in the brood box.
The first thing I do is to check the brood box because very often the two outermost frames are full of capped honey left over from winter so I remove and replace them so that there’s more space for the queen to lay.
I use the same method as Dawn to encourage them to fill the flow frames as well.
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