@skeggley…mate, you need to live in the flats…harvested 40+ kg this year from a single hive (9 flow frames) plus a half deep with honeycomb…
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@Sabina_Manzano Not necessarily. I live in a temperate climate (Perth, Western Australia) and one brood box is fine here. However, go to the East coast of Oz and from what I’ve seen online they seem to go for 2 brood boxes.
Yes, local conditions play a big part but so does personal preference.
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@SnowflakeHoney, cmon mate it’s not the size that matters. 
I’ve had a couple of tastes from a couple of harvests from some friends colonys down in Mt Lawley and it was nice, a real mixture of florally tastes, light coloured honey but doesn’t compare with the pure Marri honey up here. A more balanced, sweeter taste with a rich dark colour.
I love my little piece of paradise up here, wouldn’t swap it for anything. Well most anything anyway. 
If I have a medium 8 frame as my first brood box would it be ok to add an 8 frame deep as my second? I bought a deep because all I had were mediums…
Hiya Sarge, Id say you would be better off having the deep for the bottom brood box and mediums above, reason being, to inspect the bottom box it would be easier to remove the medium than the deep. The upper box will contain more honey stores in it making it heavy!
Welcome to the crazy club that is beekeeping by the way, prepare to drive your mates crazy talking about bees and flowers. 
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I agree with the OP that Flow should have a small note on their product page saying something along the lines of “If you live in a cold climate, you should research if you need a second brood box, and add that to your order.”
I’m saying this from the perspective of a buyer from a country where we don’t use Langstroth hives at all, and one box of the typical hive (which is close variant of Dadant) is enough for overwintering. When I found out about the Flow hive, it was just two days before the spring promotion ended, so I hurried to buy a full hive. Then I did more research, and realized that I will need another brood box for overwintering. I could have custom ordered one from a carpenter in my country, but I wanted all boxes to be red cedar (I do like the looks of the Flow hive 
) So basically what value I won in the spring promotion, I lost in extra transportation costs.
That’s exactly right Lori. Flow needs to think about the climate beyond austrailia.
Thanks @skeggley, I know ideally I would just put another medium on, but I guess my question is.does it hurt anything to put the deep in the medium? I mean I would flip them next year and have the deep on bottom but I purchased it for more room for the bees. The mediums just seem so small… it wouldn’t make them leave for some reason?
Do you mean “on top of the medium”? If so, I would say probably not, but I prefer @skeggley’s idea of putting it underneath, even now. My reasons are:
- Easier lifting when it is full, as Skeggs says
- Bees in nature prefer building down. I have found that when I add a brood box below the existing box, bees use it more quickly and the queen starts laying in it faster than if I add a box above. I guess it just seems more natural to them.
- There is less thermal stress to a new colony if you add empty space below the existing brood. Bees work hard to keep their brood at 34C. If you add empty space overhead, lots of the heat they are making goes up into the empty box, meaning that they have to work harder to keep the brood warm.
The bees will only leave if they run out of space. If your medium is 80% full, you can add the deep underneath (with deep frames in it) and they should quite happily stay and use it.
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@Dawn_SD thank you for that response. I guess my ignorance would not have me guess that when the box becomes 80% full I had to add the deep above, I just assumed I had to stack the box. That is great advice! So I will plan that whenever my medium becomes full I will add the deep below. Thank you for all the help this forum has been amazing!
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Look at the first comment:
1.0 out of 5 starsHORRIBLE, SAVE YOUR TIME AND MONEY AND BUY A TRUE FLOW HIVE FROM HONEYFLOW, DISGUSTED!!!
ByV-Illinoison April 12, 2017
Verified Purchase
POOR CRAFTSMANSHIP, MISSING HARDWARE, FLOWS WONT FIT IN AN ASSEMBLED SUPER, ABSOLUTLY WORTHLESS INSTRUCTIONS THAT YOU HAVE TO TRACK DOWN BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE KIT (THIS IS NOT GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE). ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. Do the world a favor and STOP RIPPING PEOPLE OFF!
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I read it Faroe:
In all fairness though, I can remember what seemed like dozens of bad reviews about poor craftsmanship and other issues on this forum 
Just to stay a little on topic. Even if you operate a single brood hive you still need another box for spring management. How else will you be able to cycle brood and honey frames with a full Flow super on top? Unless of course you remove the Flow frames but that gets a bit messy with Flow and standard frames all mixed up together.
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Dear ChrisB53,
The same happened to me, I am a complete beginniner and felt a little annoyed that I then had to order another brood box which I did a couple of weeks after I received the beginner flow hive set up. Even just a little word on the Starter kit would have sufficed to prompt me to investigate. But live and learn.
As an outsider to carpentry and beekeeping I have an IKEA idea of what to expect and I am slowly learning that hive construction, modification and precision are not like putting together an IKEA couch! It is rather the opposite, with all sorts of possible modifications.
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Can one not use a standard Langstoth deep box for the second brood box?
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Yes, absolutely you can. 
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Hi are you still interested in the brood box?
The brood box in this thread is needed in North America… Can you recommend one there?
Hi Yes I can recommend some one there ,what is the location in North America?you can contact her on this email : twincrownbees@gmail.com
Best wishes
Jenna