Moisture inside Flow Frames

Flow Hive
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I recently added my flow frames a few days ago here in South Texas. the next day went to check on hive and there was allot of moisture inside on all 7 flow frames. have not had any issue with moisture until adding the flow frames and box. just checking on if anyone has had this issue and if there is a quick fix

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When I first fitted my Flow Supers the side window misted up but cleared inside of a week and never returned. I guess that happened as a result of the humidity at the time. Misting has never returned so all I can say is that happening is something not to worry about.
Cheers

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Some additional thoughts. There are quite a few reasons for moisture inside the hive:

  1. The weather has cooled down and moisture is dropping out inside the hive. In SoCal, we have ā€œPineapple Expressā€ weather systems moving through now at a tremendous rate. My hives are very wet around 60% humidity inside the hive. :open_mouth: Normal is about 40%
  2. You have a huge nectar flow and the bees are fanning like crazy to drive the water off from unripe honey. In TX at this time of year, that is a good sign.
  3. I have never had hives with windows before. I have kept bees with my husband for more than 30 years. Only now can we see moisture and other things. It is perhaps just a reflection of the improved technology.
  4. Depending on your hive setup, if you have a Flow hive with a screened bottom board, rain should drain out. If you have a solid bottom board, and you have had rain recently, the hive may be struggling to dry out the floor. You might want to tilt the hive forward, toward the entrance, to help the bees deal with any rain.

I havenā€™t been following the weather in Texas, but as we have had so much rain on the south west coast, I just thought you might be seeing some of the leftovers. :blush:

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I notice excess moisture when I have too much hive for the size of the colony. A strong colony will keep everything dry, as long as they have the correct sized hive.

Itā€™s a bit of a balancing act. Take a super away, then they can be over crowded & swarm. Add a super, then itā€™s too much room, then we get excess moisture. As long as the colony is expending, the moisture will eventually go away.

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checked yesterday and it is getting less by the day thanks for the feedback

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rain has been crazy here for past 4 months but have not had issues with moisture i had the flow hive supers inside the house prior to installing them i think i should had put them outside for few hours before installing them thank you for the feedback

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yea allot of rain here past 4 months thank you

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I put my super on a week ago and since we have had a lot of rain. The rain seems to have stopped today so I inspected the hive. I noticed a lot of moisture in the roof area and under the top board that is reddish in colour. Is this propolis (see images)?

The bees are not interested in the flow frames so far. Iā€™ve pressed some wax into one of the frames and will monitor.

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Hi Keith, it looks like a lot of moisture has gotten in & mildew is developing on the corners of the crown board. It would be good if you can seal the flow roof to stop it leaking. I can show you how I fixed mine & rearranged the crown board so that the bees seal everything to stop water going in. Feel free to pop in any time, or phone me. cheers

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Hi @Jeffh. The green colour is paint. In my naivety I painted my hive inside and out before buying bees. Then I decided to remove the paint from the inside before the bees arrived. So the green you see is the paint I didnā€™t remove. I assume thatā€™s what looks like mildew.

What I am more unclear about is the red liquid on the cover and the top of the flow frames.

Thank you for your kind offer to show me your setup. I will take you up on your offer and Iā€™ll be in touch soon to find a time to visit.

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Keith, could that be tannins from the wood of the inner cover coming out with the moisture???

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Here in the South the home of humidity you can try placing some burlap on top of the inner cover and put your roof on and the burlap wicks out some moisture though one must keep changing the burlap so it dries out until the weather gets dryer unless you use a vivaldi inner cover which allows air flow through the top to dry out the burlap.

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I suspect you might be right @cathiemac. That makes sense to me.

Thank you also to @Martha for the tip!

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Thereā€™s always a few small hive beetles on my corflute slider when I pull it out from under the screened bottom board. I have two traps sitting on the coreflute slider that do kill the SMB. Today I noticed one live larvae on the board. I didnā€™t open the hive as I didnā€™t have my kit with me but will do so tomorrow. If this is SMB larvae, is seeing this one larvae a problem? Also, what should I look for at next inspection? If I find larvae in the comb, what should I do?

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Hi Keith, chances are that single larvae is wax moth larvae, hopefully. If it is SHB larvae & it dropped down from the brood, chances are: there are more. Did you notice a foul odour? That will be associated with SHB larvae activity. SHB larvae resemble cooked long grain rice & are white to creamy in colour. Wax moth larvae is a bit longer & their skin is king of transparent. You can see their intestines through it, whereas with SHB larvae, the skin is not transparent. Plus there is little bristles along the back of SHB larvae, but not on wax moth larvae. Hope this helps, cheers

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Thanks @JeffH . I didnā€™t pay close enough attention to the grub at the time. Iā€™ve since checked the hive and canā€™t find any evidence of the critters. I do get a few hive beetles on the bottom board and have taken steps to keep them under control.

Iā€™m looking forward to catching up but probably wonā€™t make it until after Easter.

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No worries Keith, I look forward to that, cheers

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It looks like a leaking roof. I painted the heck out of my roof. At some point if suggestions and remedies donā€™t work a new roof might be wise.

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Iā€™ve had my flow super on for 2 weeks now and no activity up there. A few bees waking on the flow frames but not working them. The brood box is overflowing with bees! There are 2 frames of capped honey and the rest have brood in various stages of development. Interestingly one frame is almost empty. I assume thatā€™s because the bees have hatched recently.

How much capped honey is typical for brood box; especially when thereā€™s 6 empty flow frames above the queen excluder?

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Hiya Keith, sort of a ā€˜how deepā€™ question. Ideally just the outside face of the outside frame and the tops of all the frames, basically surrounding the brood. Close food supply and insulation.
Once honey is capped bees will usually only uncap to eat when required. Of course, like everything beekeeping, there are exceptions. The beekeeper can move frames and scratch cappings to encourage bees to move honey up but if there isnā€™t enough forage, nectar or pollen, available then the bees canā€™t hoard leaving the super empty.
Thereā€™s been much talk regarding encouraging acceptance of plastic frames and Iā€™ll not go into that but it sounds like forage may be a bit scarce with the empty frame in the brood box. Without knowing your weather conditions advice is best left for locals but it does seem a bit early to be adding a super.

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