Is it too late to pre-wax my Flow frames?

I added my Flow honey super nine days ago. Placed them atop two 80+% full brood boxes. I, as an incentive, placed a protein patty in the “attic” to try and coax them up. After this amount of time, I think perhaps a half dozen bees have been in the honey super. The protein patty is practically untouched.

Is it too late to pull the Flow supers and coat them with melted beeswax as many have advised? Or should I just wait it out some more? I am not sure what kind of nectar flow is happening now and I stopped feeding them sugar syrup when I placed the honey super on…

Thanks, C

Hi Chris, I think it depends on whether the bees are ready to go up into the 3rd super as to whether it’s worthwhile placing it on or not. For me a good indicator would be if the bees had access into the roof, if they started building in the roof.

I would caution against placing the protein patty up in the attic if no bees are up there because the patty could be a magnet for hive beetles to lay eggs in. Especially if no bees are guarding it.

Thanks Jeff. They do have access to the roof (not plugged) through the flow frames box. That’s where the small patty is. They are eating off it but not prolifically. I keep a very close eye out for SHB. I deep freeze the patties at about -10F for a week before I ever feed them, FWIW. They are not building up in the attack space. So maybe they are not ready. It was suggested by my bee tutor to add it, but they don’t seem interested as well as they were the second brood box I added about six weeks ago. CG

Hi Chris, I wouldn’t use the patty unless there is a pollen dearth. Your mentor may have suggested adding the flow super because he expects a honey flow is likely. You should check back with him on that. If a honey flow is imminent, I would give them a bit more time.

In reality, beekeeping is about numbers. the more bees a colony has, the more excess honey they can produce. Your hive could have 4 or 5 full frames of sealed & emerging brood, if that’s the case, once those bees reach field bee status, you can expect to see results during a honey flow.

Remove the patty you dint want tye bees plugging 8t into your flow super.

Remove a frame at a time and spray with sugar water.

Of you’ve any burr comb squish it into some of tye centre frames.

Thanks to all. I removed the patties and wet waxed the frames. They seem to take to them immediately! C

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This is several days after removing, waxing, and replacing the Flow honey frames. Lots of activity! I used Amazon block bees wax, a pan, a four inch roller, melted on a hot plate. They seem happy. Sealing all the cracks and lots of bee butts!




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