Hi all, I had most success heating bees own wax in a slow cooker and painting onto frames straight out of that. Now have two flow hives, each on two brood boxes, foundation less frames in one box, no queen excluders and harvest every two months for approx 50 kilo a year each hive for past two years. Minimal swarming and no brood in flow cells.
I also believe in minimal disturbance inside the hive as this certainly cuts honey production, it also breaks the propolis layer the bees seal everything with to keep out cold, draught, insects and disease.
Hive position is important too.
Keep trying!
3 Likes
How strong are your colonies? How old are the queens? If you start with a good colony & a young well mated vigorous queen, provided you give them good worker combs to buildup in, your colony should build to a good size & able to take advantage of any decent honey flow. In that case you wont need to, as others in my area have found, prepare the flow frames.
After saying all that, if you place the flow frames in a warm environment, say with a heater fan blowing on them, as well as the paint brush, I believe the wax wont set so quickly for you.
1 Like
Hi, it’s two years plus a little bit… I was wondering how you went?
As a new Flow member who has yet to crack the cartons her Flow hive arrived in (voraciously reading everything I can and trying really hard not to get too confused in the process, lol) I’d really like to know.
Curiosity killed the cat, but information brought it back❣️
1 Like
Thanks - I’d forgotten about this!
I never committed regicide…the girls did. Last year they replaced the Queen by their own choice - I had no hand in it. This is the first full season with the “new” Queen, and so far I’d say she’s a keeper 
5 Likes
That’s fantastic news. They certainly seem to know what they’re doing don’t they?
Thank you.
1 Like
I have thousands of Bees all over my Flow frames and yet not one piece of wax placed on any of them, they filled the Brood hive very quickly and so had to add the honey super, the Bees almost straight away went up into the new box and started covering the frames but a month later with great flow in my area as the Bottle Brush and paperbark came into full flower and nothing, took 4 flows out and they looked exactly like the day I put them in, the Bees still walk all over them but that’s all they will do, I took three flows out and placed 4 normal frames in and will see what they do with them over the next few weeks. I will get some wax and try spraying the flow frames I took out and replace the ones still left in the Super with them and see if they like them any more :(, I had to put flyscreen over the hole in the top board as they were starting to fill the roof with comb, I have that comb plus some comb from the nuc so may have enough to do three flow frames with wax spray. Fingers crossed as I am sure once they start they will continue, just getting them started as they don’t seem to have a clue what to do with the flow frames, they crawl inside each section of the frame and check it all out and I think they cleaned them all, the Bees did come from a Apiary that never had Flow frames so maybe if they came from a Flow frame previously they would know what to do ?
A few tips. I have 4 flow supers and experimented a bit when I first set them up and the quickest way to get the bees working on the comb was to melt some wax and paint the end of the cells. That introduces a smell they know and they will use the wax to seal up the cells.
Once the colony is big enough that they need the extra space of the super for storing honey they will have no other option than to use the Flow Frames, the trick is to make them seem familiar with the scent of wax on them.
A common mistake is adding the super when it isn’t needed in which case the bees might have a ‘look’ but not use the super.
A colony needs 6 kg’s of honey to produce 1 kg of wax so giving them some wax will be a big help to seal up the frames as well as the familiar smell.
My advice is to take the frames out and wash them in a mild detergent like dish washing liquid, rinse in water and let them air dry then paint some wax on them and put them back on the hive.
Boondall should have heaps of pollen and a good flow of nectar now as I am 100k’s from you and a similar climate, follow my tips and they should be soon storing honey if they need the space.
Welcome to the forum and hope that my answer has helped.
Cheers
1 Like
Thanks for that, I will see if the wax I already have from the NUC and the roof comb is enough and if not I may take a drive to my local Bee Hive Supplies and get a block of wax if they are still open Cheers, I will let you know how it goes as it is my first attempt at a Flow super and I was sure there would be learning involved
It doesn’t take a lot of wax to do all of the frames, but you should do all of them and any cells left un-waxed will not get used till those that are in use. Melt the wax in a small saucepan in a larger one with water in the larger one, you only need to have the wax melted - not boiling. Use a crappy brush as it can’t be cleaned afterwards. Best to do in the kitchen with newspaper to take up any drips.
Cheers
Wow @Dawn_SD. That are really packed into your Flow Super.
I used a solid block of bees wax and a kitchen torch. I torched a bit of the block then rubbed it on the frames. It goes much faster, the wax does not need to stay in a pot and the clean up is very easy. I did your method and it is effective though there is much waste in tools.
6 Likes
I found out what the problem was and why they weren’t filling the frames, the first so called Flow Hive I bought was a Chinese knock off.
Since then I bought a proper Flow Hive from Flow and I only put the Flow frame hive onto my established colony a week ago and they have filled at least half the frames already, no wax required.
Maybe the knock off smells different ?
I didn’t know there were knock off brands especially when they call it a Flow hive.
I thought the quality of the dove tails and joins as well as the attachments were very poorly done for an Aussie made item.
The real Flow Hive I got was like chalk and cheese and the Bees seem to know the difference as well lol.
Thanks for the help though as I am sure the knock off may work with a coating of wax, just not sure if I am game to use them since the Bees didn’t want to ?
6 Likes
@Gardum Where did you buy the knock off from?
@Freebee2 might be interested to know so Flow can report and follow it up.
FWIW, I wouldn’t use the knock off…
1 Like
I already sent Flow all the relevant details and I don’t see it advertised on their site any more.
If they didn’t call it a Flow hive then I wouldn’t have bought it but when you are new to Honey Bees and have never bought a Honey Bee hive, you have no clue as to what is what, I now do and as probably everyone that is new to something will make at least one mistake or buy something they didn’t need to
3 Likes
You’re not the only one to have made that mistake. No need to feel bad about it.
And with beekeeping you’ll always buy more stuff than someone thinks you need but you’ll realise it’s never enough or there’s always something else you want to get… 
3 Likes
Just as a thought I wonder how many of the people having trouble with their Bees not storing Honey into the Frames may have the fake ones and not real Flow frames ?
Just thinking since my Bees didn’t like the fake ones and yet went straight onto the real ones ?
I also posted that comment before I knew I had a fake setup
1 Like
More likely the frames still had some releasing agent on the plastic that the bees didn’t like if you didn’t wash them in warm soapy water before using them. Even with a Flow frame the bees will work them quicker with some bees wax applied to the frame before hand. Bees will only use a Flow Frame, or a copy, if there is a honey flow happening and they need a space to store the honey.
Cheers
3 Likes
There was a very strong flow on at the time and I ended up losing my original queen because they swarmed rather than use the fake flow frames 
Our Paper Bark and Bottle Brush were in bloom at the time and was why I placed the Super on as my Brood box was chockers, I thought I was safe as I had checked the hive before placing the Super on but three weeks later I had to Baby sit the Daughter Kids and Home and when I got back I noticed a lot less Bees, still no Honey in the fake frames and my marked original Queen had absconded with half the hive .
I was in a simialr situation about a week ago with how full the Brood box was and thought I better put a Super on and didn’t have the time to wax the frames and just wanted to see if their was any differnce in preference to the Bees and they were straight onto the Flow frames and they are now over half full the two centre frames are full to the edges and capped and the other frames are getting fuller by the day.
There is a strong flow on at the moment as the Bottle Brush, grevilleas,Commonwealth Gold and Paper Bark are all in differnt stages of bloom.
2 Likes
I did wash the frames but am going to try a coating of wax from the same Bees I am placing the Super onto, if they still don’t use them I am going to place the frames on the sidewalk for the Council pick up lol and buy 7 Flow frames to put into the Super.
Any plastic frame will be more readily accepted if it is coated with a little wax, When I bought four Flow hives and experimented with applying wax the frames where being worked on in a couple of days to be sealed up, the few I didn’t put wax onto where ignored by the bees till they had no option but to use them.
I really doubt bees will understand patent law and reject any frame that is not a Flow Frame. I do some mentoring and with Flow Frames and the copies it is all about presenting them to the bees clean and with some wax over the comb and the bees will use them if there is a flow happening. I’m not a lover of the Chinese copies by any means, especially the copies with a bamboo made QX, but the much cheaper price sucks some into buying them thinking they are buying a bargain.
Your the first I have heard of that had bees prefer to swarm than to use a plastic frame. What time of year did that happen?, could be another reason for the swarming.
Cheers
2 Likes