My brood box is leaking honey

Beekeeping - Basics
1

We have had some pretty hot days lately +40c and although the hive is positioned to get afternoon shade I think some comb in the brood box may have melted. The beetle trap was full of honey yesterday and I’ve been checking it daily for the last couple of weeks. This is the first time this has happened and we have had runs of extreme heat earlier.
This morning there was no honey in the trap, just a couple of beetles.
I got the Nuc hive around the 20 October 2015 and it is very strong. I have already harvested some honey. I was thinking I might need to add another brood box even though it seems a bit soon for that.
Has anyone else experienced a honey leak? What do you think caused it?
Thanks for any input :grin:

2

Hello there, welcome to the Flow forum!

You don’t say, but do you have a Flow hive, or a regular hive? I am only asking so that we can narrow down the source of the leak. I wouldn’t be surprised if wax in the hive had melted in that heat, but it were me, I would think that a leak like that would make me want to do a full hive inspection - suit and veil, smoker and take the whole hive apart. There are several things I would want to look for:

  1. Are the Flow frames all aligned and sealed.
  2. Are the Flow frames all capped, or are any of them mostly capped?
  3. Is the gap under the Flow cells full of honey, suggesting a leaking frame?
  4. Is there honey on top of the queen excluder? If so, at least some of it definitely came from the upper box.
  5. Are the brood frames all intact - any sign of torn or drooping wax? If so, you may need to repair or replace. Bees will get creative with comb at the slightest provocation, and if you don’t intervene early, you may end up with a mess that is very hard to fix later. Definitely do something about misshapen cells or comb that isn’t straight in line with the frame.
  6. Is the brood box honey bound, i.e. all cells completely full of brood, honey and pollen, with hardly any empty cells? If so, you might want to give the queen more space.

I think we can’t answer your question accurately without a full inspection, and even some pictures if you are able to take them. :slightly_smiling:

If it turns out to be drooping wax from over heating, there are some methods for cooling the hive by draping wet burlap over the hive on days when you are expecting high temps. But I think we need to know more first.

Good luck, and please let us know what you find.

Dawn

3

Thanks for all that Dawn
I have a standard brood box with a flow hive super. It didn’t occur to me that the honey may have come from the super but as you suggest, that should be easy to determine by doing a full inspection. I have previously tapped the 2 centre frames of the flow hive and they filled back up pretty quickly. Seems to be plenty of honey.
I will definitely try to give the queen some more room if the brood box is chockers. We have been having lots of storms so waiting on some consistent sunshine before I investigate further - hopefully tomorrow.
I will take pics as well. Thanks again for your input and I will return here when I have more info.

1 Like