I want to mix flow frames and regular frames in a super - comments?

Why?! you ask. Well, I ordered two full flow hives, and then ended up lending the flow frames from one hive to the UC Davis Honey Bee Research Facility so they could evaluate them. So now I have two hives but only one set of flow frames. I was thinking I could just put half the frames in the center of each honey super, and fill out with regular frames. What problems might I encounter doing this?

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They are already designed to work with that configuration. Look at the Flow Lite options. 3 flow frames with 4 regular frames(2 on each side) http://www.honeyflow.com/media/images/content/detail/WRC_3F_flow_light_oiled_front_window_open_no_wording_Web-gallery245_Sep23130633.jpg

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I think the only issue is maintaining correct bee space. If you are using the Full Flow hive, I presume it has 8-Frame Langstroth dimensions. I think you could fill the remaining space with traditional frames, and as long as you leave a little space by the outer frames, you should be fine. If it was my hive, I would put 3 Flow frames in the middle, then two traditional deeps on either side of those. As the Flow frames have already been used in hybrid supers, I don’t think you will have a problem.

Although you already have a Flow Hive, with the cutouts, this video gives you an idea of some the spacing issues, and how to deal with them:

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Did you get the Full Flow @Mike_Silva? If so, you probably want to make use of the window/s to watch the bees working on a flow frame, rather than a regular frame (tho this would also be interesting). You might consider putting the flow frames on the window side and filling the rest of the box with regular wax frames… might need a spacer or dummy board to fill it up properly.

I expect you will encounter problems with the regular frames sitting too low on the back of the hive and might need propping up. Plus the bees will escape out the back of the hive when opened up, so you might require a sheet of hard board or something to stop this… curious to see how it goes!