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.
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.
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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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