How to encourage bees to use the Flow Frames

Hello and good morning from Germany!
I am a newbeekeeper and I have 1 hive (right now). My helper suggested to sprinkle a bit honey-water-mix at the plastic frames to get the bees to them. It wasn’t necessary for me but maybe it’s a good idea for you. Hope it will work for you.

Patience is also required.
My bees took most of a summer, all of winter into the next nectar flow.
However when they did start it only took a few weeks from first honey to be deposited to harvesting 6 full frames.
Bees seem do what they want to when they want to. :slightly_smiling_face:

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The Flow is winding down in the mid atlantic: Take care of the mites, and prepare for winter.

I painted mine frames with wax in early Spring…they wee not on it and after rolling wax on the frames they started working them like crazy…sealing the cracks, ect…they are now caping honey in them…

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Hi @JayPe. A bit of sugar water would do the trick. Not sure how it is in Germany, but unless the honey for your sprinkle is from that same hive, you could be introducing unnecessary AFB spores to your hive. Certainly never feed your bees store bought honey.
AFB is American Foulbrood, not sure what it’s called in Germany.
I used a few blobs of burrcomb randomly pressed into the frames with a few sprinkles of sugar water. The bees went up there straight away.

Hi!
Yes , that was a suggestion too. I remember that he said the same things… sugar is better and easier to sprinkle. Good to hear that the trick did it for you :slight_smile:

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Wouldn’t using a little lemongrass oil in the sugar water be helpful as well?

I would be very careful with that. Essential oils could flavor the frames for ever! :blush: My bee-feeding pails smell strongly of lemongrass and spearmint (from Honey-B-Healthy) for months after I last used them. Even when I have washed them carefully or run them through the dishwasher! You really don’t want to flavor your honey.

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Starting with a ‘well populated brood box’ followed by two & half months of brood production should (usually) be enough to get the bees producing good volumes of honey. Based in Perth, I started with a small swarm in Sept and in Dec, with frames full of brood, I installed the flow super and got a small harvest early March, then again in April and May (total 12kg). I painted my flow super with bees wax before installing, and within 4 weeks I could see honey through the inspection window. There was no delay in bees populating / working the flow super. We had lots of flowering trees, shrubs, fruit and vegies all around the area, which surely helped.
I notice your post is dated April. Had any luck with bees & honey in the flow super during May & June?

Gidday Peter and thanks for your message.

I have had the hive now since the beginning of February, with a very well stocked brood. I have not had one drop of honey since then, and there is still no sign of any honey in the flow frames at all. Unfortunately, there is just no nectar or honey on the Atherton Tableland at all, and from speaking to other beekeepers everybody is having to feed their bees at present twice a week.

There is a much reduced honey flow down on the coast around Cairns etc, but even they are complaining at present.

The seasons are all out of wack this year, and hopefully things will change in the near future, and I may get some honey for the first time in my hive.

Cheers

Hi Michael, I agree with @Dawn_SD, I would use the sugar water without adding anything. Apparently white sugar is better for the bees than brown or raw sugar, according to my abc to xyz of bee culture.

I’m real close to giving up on the bees ever using the flow frames. Just a thought but it seems that the longer I go with this situation the less chance I see that it will ever turn around. It’s like those frames are taboo now to the bees and only used to relieve congestion.

Hi Chet, how many hives have you got going? Anything happening honey wise in the non Flow ones (if you have them)?

I went through our first nectar flow with zilch, nix, nothing in the flow frames and like you thought it would never happen.:disappointed_relieved: But I thought what is the problem with that? I have a lovely colony of bees which I can sit and watch for hours…they never cease to amaze or amuse. So what if I don’t get honey, they cost less in time and money than a dog or cat.

Then it happened 12 months later and they filled 6 flow frames in less than two weeks. From the start of honey deposits to harvest was under 4 weeks. 23Kg of honey thank you very much.

So just enjoy the bees until it happens. They will reward you when they decide to.:smiley:

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Turn the hive 180 degrees around gradually over the next few days, then, next season, you will reap the rewards of a big honey harvest.

I have 5 right now and have harvested 2 med full from one that also had flow frames but were ignored while filling the 2 meds and are still being ignored. A second one with flow frames has 2 med almost ready while ignoring the flow frames. All I know to do now is removed them for the winter and start over. Those meds full of honey were filled after giving the flow frames time for the bees to use but they never did. I think they just like to party up there and that’s it.

Hi Chet, it is a real shame they did not use the Flow frames. There probably is a logical explanation somewhere but I’m not seeing it at the moment. I have followed quite a few posts on the Forum and all I can guess by way of explanation is that perhaps (and I really mean perhaps) it is that case that there was not quite the alignment required of all the necessary requirements - like good nectar flow, Flow frames in place for storage (with no other reasonable place for them to store honey) and the colony at the “right” strength. Could it just somehow be the case that you took the Flow frames away just before they were about to fill them? Could it just be bad luck with the timing of that? I wish there were some obvious solution for next time but I fear from what you have reported that we will not find it at the moment.

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Please click here for more information on this topic:

http://forum.honeyflow.com/t/how-to-encourage-bees-to-fill-the-flow-frames/6535

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I live in Upstate New York State in Cazenovia. I got a 6 frame flow hive with one bottom hive body in the spring of 2016. Moved a strong over winter hive into the smaller flow hive and may have harmed the queen. They left slowly over the next 2 months. I got 2 nucs and they one nuc took to the hive well. The other nuc went into the old ten frame hive. Got two gallons of honey with honeyflow from a nuc started In July. Got 2 nice supers full of honey from the old hive. Despite enclosing the hives, the honey flow hive didn’t make it. Needed a second hive body to store enough for the winter. The surviving old hive got a 7 frame honey flow super. They never went into it. I got 2 more nucs in July 2017 and put one in the 6 frame flow with a second hive body and the other in a new 7 frame flow with 2 new hive bottoms. This year the new hives went up into the flow super and made decent honey. I think the hive wont go into a flow super if it has filled normal supers in the past. Anyone have a similar experience?

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