Moved my Flow hive back down to one brood box. (Video)

So I decided to move my Flow hive back down to one box. I made a video of it (yes its a little long i know i had to pick frames i thought were the best ones). I found the queen as i was putting the frames back in the box. I’m seeing alot more activity since doing this. I don’t think they had enough bees to do everything and draw out more comb. I hope this helps. Please comment on how you think the hive is doing, I’m a first year beek. My second hive is doing really well. I already moved 2 frames over to this hive to boost them a few weeks apart. Do they need another? @Dee @Dawn_SD

Get into the habit of looking into the bottom box first, putting the top one aside and covering it.
Is that box you put the first frame in on the ground? You need a lid. What if the queen is in it and drops off?

The brood nest will contract markedly for winter and the bees will fill 80% of them with honey. You should be able to overwinter them in one box.

So you have a decent amount of brood on four frames.
If there is pollen and nectar to be had they should expand at their own pace. I wouldn’t be weakening your other hive by taking brood.

You’re still taking too long with inspections. Just look for yourself and don’t explain too much as from your camera angle we can’t see what you’re pointing at.

I would have left that bottom box on and left them in peace. The nest will be at the top where it is warmest anyway and they will just ignore the bottom frames

When you are doing your winter preps you could take it away then.

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I need two boxes here in alaska to hope to survive winter. The frames they had weren’t fully drawn so i’m hoping to get them drawn. They do have uncapped nectar surrounding brood but nothing capped. I’m trying to get faster at the inspections so i’ll do that. I’ll put the inner cover on the ground next time under the box as you know flow tops dont lend themselves to being on the bottom of anything lol.

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Well you still have time.
If they don’t draw those extra frames then don’t despair. It is possible to overwinter bees in a mating hive…believe me. Just feed till they take no more and insulate well, and I mean properly. Make them a cosy that surrounds the whole hive except the entrance. You’ll have to take the flow roof off and use a traditional one. For insulation you need 50mm of that aluminium backed house insulation.

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I’ll do that for the roof. Thanks for the information i was kinda wondering how do address the roof.

Good luck.
Must be tough being a bee in Alaska

I think I saw you mention somewhere that you might be setting up a Flow Hive? Is it still going ahead, have you started, bees in?

yeah the one in the video is the flow brood box. I’m hoping to have it good to go for a overwintering.

It’s still in the box :blush:
Next year

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I sure hope so! I have a traditional hive too so as to experience that as well @Kirsten_Redlich.

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Oops :wink: foot in mouth

Look forward to seeing how they compare :slight_smile:

feel free to watch my videos :slight_smile: You can see the differences between a wooden an polystyrene hive. I’m moving to strictly tripod video to ease motion issues.

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