This is very unusual for us. Normally, the last harvest of the season in San Diego, California is mid-July at the latest. However, we had some unusual “monsoon” rains after that, so we left the Flow super on the hive. It is pretty well adorned with propolis, but it also had some very nice capped honey. Some of the frames were partially capped, so we decided to harvest in the kitchen. Here are some photos of our last harvest:
Wow, Beautiful! I like seeing the different colors of honey. We just checked our flow hives. Our flow frames are half full of honey with only 10% capped. We are still seeing lots of pollen going into the hive. What do we do with the honey if the weather doesn’t stay warm until the flow frames are capped?
I peeked into the top brood box and can see capped honey on the frames, yay! food stores for winter.
They often are not capped later in the season. So what I do is bring the super inside, so that I can catch any leaks. I set up a couple of large sheet pans under the super, as you can see in the second photo above. Then I drain the honey inside, catching any leaks in the pans.
If it wasn’t capped, I test the water content with a honey refractometer (about $30 from Amazon) and if it is less than 18.6% water, it will be shelf stable and you can sell it. Any more water than that, I either use it for cooking, or the bees get it back when they need feeding, but meanwhile I store it in the freezer.
This might be a silly question but how do you get the flow hive box off and take it to your kitchen? Isn’t it super heavy? Also how do you get all of the bees out of the flow frame box to be able to harvest it on your kitchen?
Not a silly question at all, and the answer is a bit complicated…
The first thing I would do is ask why do you want to harvest in the kitchen? The best place to harvest is on the hive. I only harvest in the kitchen at the end of the season, if the frames are not capped. That means that you need to lift the frames to inspect them for capping before making a decision. If any frames are 90% capped or more, I will harvest those frames on the hive. That will make the whole box a lot lighter, even if it is only 2 frames. The frame in the photo above is only about 80% capped, which is why I did a kitchen harvest.
I take uncapped frames into the kitchen to harvest, to avoid an in-hive leak. However, this is not standard advice from Flow, it is just my preference based on experience.
Having explained all that, here is how I do it:
Inspect the frames to be sure that they are not sufficiently capped
Put a bee escape board under the super. If the super is still too heavy to lift, have an empty box to the side and put 2 or 3 frames into it, until you can lift off the super to get the bee escape underneath
Put the super back on the hive, replace any frames removed into the same slots as before
Wait 1-3 days. No more than 3 days, or the bees may find a way back up, or seal up your bee escape
Lift the box off if you can and carry it into your harvesting area. If you can’t, take out one frame at a time, and place them in an empty box in your kitchen or harvesting area. Make repeated trips until you can lift the box off
That is it! Not easy, but not that hard either. Just make sure that you really want to do it that way before you start. Here is the bee escape that I like. There are other options, but this one works well:
This is our first year having bees. We live in Iowa and our winters are definitely cold! I’ve seen mixed opinions on whether to leave the flow frames full of honey in during the winter, and others say harvest them and take them out. We only have one brood box down below and the one flow frame box. Fall is upon us and I wish we would have put a second brood box on before the flow box….but we didn’t…so I’m unsure if we should leave the flow frame box on all winter, or harvest what there is, save some honey and feed some back to the bees during the winter. Im very nervous about them surviving through the winter only having one brood box. I thought maybe if we harvest the honey in the flow frames whether is fully capped or not, that we could switch that box out with another brood box that they can start working on before the winter comes. There are not many bee keepers in our area and none have worked with the flow frames to be able to give us advice. So I’m unsure if we should leave that box over winter or harvest and put on a new brood box…I’m really stressing about this so I’m sorry if this is confusing! I appreciate your responses SO much!
Take them off for sure in your climate. In tropical and some sub-tropical climates, the frames can be left on. If you do that with your climate, multiple bad things can happen:
Your bees will put propolis all over the frames, gumming them up for next year’s harvest. That could make it impossible to open the frames without breaking them, and the clean up is a nightmare
If you leave the queen excluder on, the bees may abandon the queen to get to the food. She will freeze on her own in the lower box. Then the hive will die in the spring
If you take the queen excluder off, the queen may lay in the Flow super, ruining your harvest next year, or at least making a lot of extra work for you. @FrederickDunn has tried this experiment, if you want to look up his results.
Yes that would have been better, but there are lots of things you can do to help.
If some Flow frames are capped, harvest them on the hive. The collected honey can always be fed back to the bees later, and they love it!
If some are uncapped or partially capped, harvest them and freeze the honey. It can also be used to feed the bees over winter or in the spring. There are plenty of feeders that you can use, from ziploc bags to pails. You can search this forum for advice and ideas. Bees will take honey all winter. They don’t like syrup much - it is too dilute in cold weather. You may need to feed repeatedly over winter, as your hive won’t have much in the way of stores. Make sure that you have equipment and supplies to do that
Plan to winterize your hive (insulate the walls and consider a moisture quilt on top). In your climate, you will need it
Plan to treat for varroa very soon, if you haven’t already. That is the major cause of over winter death in the US
I understand, and that is a great sign that you will become a very good beekeeper. You care, and that matters. It is great that you came here for advice. As far as local advice goes, manage your brood box they same way that they do. It is only the harvesting that is different.
To reassure you, it is perfectly possible for your bees to survive over winter in one box. It just means a bit more work for you in making sure that they have enough to eat, and are not challenged by pests or diseases before they start. You can do this!
I will definitely harvest the capped ones on the hive and pull the ones not capped out and do that! I can’t tell you enough how much better you have made me feel! I did see them bringing in a little pollen on their legs today. Do you think it’s too late in the year the put on the second brood box and have them start working on it before winter or would it just be better to leave it as one box?
Probably, unless your area has a fall flow. Some northern US states do have a pretty good flow from late August to mid-October. Having said that, once overnight temperatures get much below the mid-50’s, it will be hard for the bees to work with wax (it gets hard and brittle in cooler temperatures). It also depends on how full your existing brood box is. If it is less than 80% full of honey, pollen and brood, I would NOT add another box at any time.
If I was going to try it, I might try a medium or shallow box (with foundation to help the bees with a head start), and take it off after the fall flow is done if it doesn’t have stores in it for the bees. You will need local advice on the timing of that.
Hiya @skeggley! Our bees are just about surviving, but with the current drought, we have had no harvest at all. We recently took the Flow supers off, and although they were well-waxed by the bees, they were empty. We have put our late summer oxalic acid sponges into the hives, and will keep our fingers crossed for winter. If we get some rain, the ironbarks and other eucalyptus around here may flower later in the year. Probably won’t rain before late October though.
Hi there. I understand how you feel going into your first winter, I am coming out of mine quite relieved. A good source of information for you would be a YouTube channel by Frederick Dunn. He lives in PA in snow belt area. His Q&A episodes are very informative and beginner friendly.
