Hi all. Is there such a thing as a 5-frame flow hive? Have been told that that is the best to start with.
Hey John,
What you’re describing is a five frame nucleus hive (nuc). It’s a starter colony with a laying queen, workers, brood and food ready to be transferred into your permanent brood box. You add extra frames of foundation giving the bees room to grow.
The Flow part of any hive are the Flow frames for honey extraction and the box in which they hang. The brood box is the same as any Langstroth hive.
You could modify a nuc box to take three Flow frames to place on a nuc brood box, but I don’t see the benefit over an eight frame brood box.
Mike
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Hi John and welcome. Mike answered well. I believe what you’ve heard has to do with starting with a nucleus colony versus a package of bees. Packages are a cluster of workers with a mated queen, and don’t include any comb or equipment. Nucs and packages both have their pros and cons, and I know some prefer to start with a package. Personally I’d go with a nuc every time.
Are you in the US or another country, by the way? Keep us posted as you move forward!
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Hi. Eva.
I’m in Western Australia.
Cheers, John
Hello and welcome to the Flow forum! 
I agree with everything @aussiemike and @Eva wrote, but I would like to clarify some things.
- Flow don’t make 5 frame Flow hives (nucleus hives), because a colony of that size would be much more stressed than a larger one when you harvested the honey. It can be done, but you have to have some experience first to make sure that you don’t take too much food from them
- I think that somebody has given you confusing advice, or perhaps not fully explained what they meant. A 5 frame nucleus is a great colony to purchase to start a new hive. However, you don’t keep it in the 5 frame box for any length of time. Once you get the new bees home and they have settled for a few hours, you take the 5 frames out of the transport box and transfer them gently into your full size hive (8 or 10 frames). You give them 3 or 5 empty frames to fill the rest of the new hive box, pushing the nucleus frames together in the center of the box. Do not put the super on the hive, and consider feeding unless there is a storming nectar flow.
Beekeeping has all sorts of little wrinkles like this, which can make it complicated when you start out. Just keep asking questions, and we will try to set you straight with good practice! 
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Hi Dawn. Thanks for the reply. I don’t think I was given conflicting advice. I misunderstood what I was told. (It’s an age thing) Take care, be safe. John.
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Definitely a good way to learn the ropes before scaling up
Thanks. But I have found a 4 frame that will be easier for me to manage. And have time to prepare it before I can install bee’s. Cheers John.
And I misunderstood what I was told about the frames. Cheers John.