It’s my second year beekeeping, I went through winter with 3 hives that were doing excellent. (Now I’m up to 8 hives due to swarms and splits)
Earlier this spring I put the queen excluder and the flow hive on top of my strongest hive, they didn’t touch it instead they swarmed 3 times.
I moved it to the next hive, two weeks later they swarmed. Then I moved to my third hive, I added it above a honey super and it wasn’t touched. I then added melted wax to the flow hive frames, I saw bees checking it out but nothing has been drawn. Now I put the flow hive below a medium box that is almost full of honey and above two deeps. I see bees have filled some of the cracks of the flow hive with wax but no honey on any of the frames.
We probably have two weeks left of the nectar flow in my area.
Will I ever see honey in the flow hive?
I would now let it sit on the hive, where they started to seal it with wax. Give them time.
I smeared some honey taken out of a natural comb into one flow frame (the middle one) and they started working it from the center. If you take the super away again, they’ll never get to use it.
Hi Bass, to answer your question: Yes.
During swarm season I’m guessing that all your bees want to do is swarm. What you could do is open the brood up & lift 3 frames of brood with bees into a second super, the flow super without flow frames. Let the bees draw fresh foundation in the bottom box in a checkerboard fashion. Repeat that process in a couple of weeks time, only this time make sure the queen is in the bottom box & add the QX. Flank the six frames of brood & bees with flow frames. As the brood hatches & the bees fill the frames with honey, remove those frames & replace them with flow frames. You will need to constantly check on the brood for signs of swarming. If you have a good queen there, you may need to open the brood up again & take that brood to help out a weaker colony, OR you could remove some brood including bees, minus the queen to start a new colony.
Good luck with that, cheers