Help- My new Queen (placed in the hive 2 weeks agao) is able to fit through my plastic QE (Flow Hive) I inspected today and found newly laid larvae in top and bottom box!!
What do I do?!
Hi Liza, you need to change the QE. It would be good if you can remove the new larvae out of the Flow frames before the larvae matures & spins cocoons. Those cocoons will stop honey from flowing in the future.
PS I should have asked how old the QE is. I have found that with clients plastic QEs, they seem to only get 18 months out of them before they either crack & open up, or they warp & create a gap that queens can fit through.
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Yes I agree with Jeff it is likely the QE is damaged either from age or from mechanical (hive tool, etc) during an inspection.
Get a new QE, I prefer a metal one as they are more robust. Find the queen, move her to the brood box if not already there.
Then you face the clean up process of brood in the flow frames. As Jeff says do it sooner than later as it will be easier. Search the forum for what other people have used. I like to use a pressure cleaner, support the back of the flow frames and give them a blast from a distance that gets the “gunk” out, rinse and repeat. I always start further away and move the pressure cleaner closer until I get to the “sweat spot.”
Great, thanks for the help Jeff
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Thanks Adam- luckily I only have the wooden frames in the super at the moment! Saves me a massive job cleaning the flow frames.
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Hi Liza,
If you think there may be a fault in your queen excluder, please also email info@honeyflow.com so the team can assist you with this.
Kind regards,
Free