Hi Mark, do you have a hybrid with plastic frames either side of the flow frames or do you have a full flow frame super? What is your setup? Cheers Tim.
Hi Tim
I have flow super with 3 flow frames in the middle and 2 plastic frames each side.
From the back I can see the bees working on the flow frames and some honey in them.
From the side I can see a few bees crawling around but nothing else yet.
cheers
Mark.
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I read about the beeswax trick and I was worried that i would damage the flow frame so dribbled a few table spoons of Honey accross the frames instead. Sugarwater May do, i suppose itâs a kind of lure. The bees are now all over the frames.
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I had starter strip frames in my hybrid- I harvested one of these and replaced it with a plastic foundation sticky that I had also just harvested from another hive. The bees fully refilled and capped that sticky in just 10 days- whilst doing little work on the flow frames. But that frame was already built out with wax so I guess it was more attractive than the flow frames.
For now I have decided to be patient- as all four standard frames are 100% capped- the bees should finally finish of the flow frames. My guess is once the flow frames have been filled and drained a few times and have a good coating of wax- this issue of reticence might decreaseâŚ
I think this theory of using plastic foundation in the hybrid might be a good idea and I will probably try that next time. Though I am not a big fan of plastic foundation.
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I wouldnât recommend using honey, unless it is from the same hive (eg. out of the top of a brood frame). Using honey from outside your apiary with your bees should be avoided due to the potential to introduce pathogens.
Oh, didnât think if that. Wouldnât the same risk apply with wax? itâs also organic & non sterile. I should have posted this reply to RBK.
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I think its worth letting the box fill right up before harvesting. I recently converted a flow into a hybrid and i put conventional frames in from another hive. Some full and capped, some empty. There was a capped frame next to the window and presumably a little more space than itâs former hive.
The bees worked across, uncapping it, drawing it out another 3mm and fillling and recapping it.
There seems to be a big variety in flow harvests from different beekeepers in terms of how much honey from a frame. I suspect that if they run out of space, they will do this uncapping and drawing out.
If this is the case, it should mean less frequent harvests and less uncapping recapping for the bees.
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I suppose the message is: in order to reduce the risk of introducing an unwanted pathegon to a hive, prime the super flow frame with wax from the brood upon which it is to sit.
Hi Caterina, sadly unwanted pathogens are all around us. We never know from one minute to the next if our bees are going to bring something back from a hive they robbed out. It could be a neighbors hive or even a wild hive. I used to think that the disease got transferred by the bees visiting the same flowers. However I think itâs more sinister than that.
I was looking at my highest performing hive the other day, then all of a sudden it dawned on me. That hive will most likely be the first one to bring a disease home, because they are the most efficient bees at seeking out honey during a honey dearth. And probably the bees that will most likely overpower a weak diseased colony in order to steal their honey.
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I checked both windows of the flow frames today. A quarter of the end cells are being filled with nectar and some of the inside cells appear to be capped. It is a bit difficult to peer in through the narrow bee space though.
The starter strip against the window has several âstalactitesâ of drawn comb being rapidly built down into the body of the frame. To me, this indicates my girls are running out of space. I wasnât expecting to harvest again for a few weeks yet but it might happen next Sunday.
If it does happen, my girls will have refilled all three frames in 5 weeks.
As a side note in politically correct Northern California we prefer to use âharvestâ rather than ârobbingâ when referring to any removal of excess honey from the hive.
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Those Australians are such straight-talkers compared with us sensitive, tree-hugging Californians. 
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I have found a lot of younger beekeepers in Australia call it âharvestingâ over ârobbingâ. I personally say harvest because ârobbingâ is commonly used to refer to bees robbing each other. I always need a double take when someone mentions robbing.
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I like ârobbingâ for its honesty. I feel sure if you could ask the bees they would call it theft⌠I robbed 2 flow frames from another hive- I find it quite amazing just how much honey bees can pack into a frame- if they could conceive of it I think they too would be astounded by how their collective efforts result in such abundance.
I have wondered how wild hives that are never robbed compare to managed hives- in terms of swarming and reproduction- are they able to utilize all that stored wealth to start more colonies than managed hives whoâs surplus âdisappearsâ with alarming regularity? Does robbing slow/lesten the swarm instinct? I suppose it must?
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A good example above why harvest rather than robbing is a better choice of words. It would be quite natural for weak wild colonies to be robbed by stronger colonies once the local nectar flow dries up.
but just because bees also rob bees- doesnât make what we do less of a crime? In fact- I would have thought that when bees rob their fellow bees- it is less of a crime as they are keeping the wealth âin the familyâ so to speak. Also- I doubt they are as conscious of notions like theft and property as we are 
they are just âredistributingâ the wealth.
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Hi Jeff, sage advice. The whole bio thing is very complex. I suppose the readily available sugars found in honey do make it attractive to bacteria and pathegon. I havenât realy read much about hive hygiene⌠iâll have to get on to it. Caterina
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Semaphore i agree, i think itâs quite honest to use ârobâ. For me, âharvestââ idoesnât covey any sense of the adventure in the raid. I like ârobâ because itâs bad, i am looking forward to my first theft with glee.
I can wait to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
May be have a bet each way. We are âharvestingâ the honey but ârobbingâ the bees to do so. 
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