Leaking frames during harvest

[Dawn_SD]

Hello and welcome to the Flow forum!

@bentootell

I read on another discussion board that it may be worth only cracking 1/4 of the frame at a time (i.e. not putting the key all the way in and turning on the first go).

You will read that here too. Most of our long time users do 20% increments. You might like to read this whole thread (about 15 posts). Lots of tips and a video that I made with my husband showing how we do a harvest to avoid leaks. We have even marked our Flow keys with 20% increment marks to make it easier to judge the increments. Very few leaks for us since 2016/2017

Lots of honey in the bottom tray

I just finished harvesting honey for the first time this year. It was a late spring. I notices two things. First, after finishing up, I pulled the bottom tray out and saw lots of honey in it. See photo. What on earth would cause that? I’m assuming its coming from the frames in the brood box. All of the honey frames up top appeared to be closed up. Second, is it normal for the bees to swarm the front of the hive while I’m harvesting in the back? I don’t recall this happening last year when I was…