Just Starting Honey Bee Lover
I live in Thousand Oaks,CA and want to connect with other newbies n Pros!
I just ordered my Flow2 6 frame and found a resource for a Nuc. Yay! Home Quarantine is giving me the time to start this hobby. My husband is onboard too!
Anyone available to chat? There are sooo many Bees… 
Thank you! Vickie
Hello Vickie and welcome to the Flow forum!
I am a bit far to be a mentor - around 165 miles south of you in San Diego, but I am happy to help you via this forum as much as I can. Please just ask any specific questions you have. There are lots of helpful people here.
I would suggest you edit your message to remove your e-mail. The forum is public and is trawled by spam bots fairly regularly, I would hate for you to be targeted! 
Hi Dawn!
Yay! Thank you for your advice. I removed my email. I just ordered a Flo2 beehive. I think I found a reliable site to buy my Queen and workers. Still learning the lingo! Should I wait to order the bees until I get the hive? Just not sure. My husband will put it together as soon as we get it.
I know there is sometimes a long wait.
That is a hard question to answer. What kind of wood are you ordering on your Flow hive? If it is cedar, you can put bees in it untreated. I wouldn’t, but you can. Then you can treat with Tung Oil with the bees already in the hive.
If it is pine, you absolutely must paint or seal it before you put the bees in. If you use a water-based exterior paint, you probably want it to cure for about a week before putting bees in. If you want to use an oil-based finish (varnish etc), you will need at least a month.
Where are you ordering your bees from? You might find a local beekeeper if you join a beekeeping club, and they could give you more flexibility. Just don’t tell them you have a Flow hive. Say it is a Langstroth (which it is). Everything about the beekeeping that you will need to do is related to Langstroth hive management in your area. The only thing that is different is the harvesting, and we can help with that. The reason for my comment is that many traditional beekeepers react strongly against Flow hives, and I don’t want you to have a bad experience from the start. Flow hives are wonderful, but some people find change very difficult.
I just got a couple of really nice packages of bees from Mann Lake Ltd. You might Google them and ask if you can’t find anything locally. I think COVID-19 has messed up their deliveries, and they may have some extras
That depends on when they can be delivered. Some orders for bees take 3-6 months, others not so long.Talk to the suppliers and you will get a better idea.
No point in having your bees arrive till you have a home ready for them so I would order the hive and get an approximate date you should get them and then order the bees. You need to allow time to make the hive and oil or paint it with curing time. Wouldn’t hurt to find out about a supplier of bees and the delay time from ordering to delivery so you can make your plams.
Cheers
Hi everyone.
This is my first time beekeeping and getting a hive going. My brother-in-law has done it for a few years now with mostly successful seasons. He has been a huge help getting the process started and some basic recommendations.
Now I think having some local advice and maybe a mentor would be really helpful. I live in southwest Michigan and the property is very hilly, heavily wooded with high canopy, rural location, 3 ponds on the property with acres of lakes less than 1000 feet away, lots of underbrush, small clearings near the house, lots of wildlife, and lots of wild flowers.
I have scoped out a couple of locations for the hive placement that are close to level ground on the approach to them (I’ll make sure the hive is leveled). I would like to place the hive on the southeast side of the house in the woods but I’m worried about sunlight. Any area that is cleared now is too close to the house and I would be constantly annoying the bees with my tractor, weed eater, lawnmower, leaf blower, etc. So any advice would be awesome!