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Lucky you @twalker! So wonderful to hear another success story :sunglasses::+1:

If I had to guess the answer to your very good question about how the bees know the cells are empty, I’d say perhaps through subtle vibrations - like how we can tell something we’re walking on is hollow. I also wonder what they see when frames are being cracked…

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The capping sheet does actually crack vertically, mostly behind the cappings, but mine had some vertical tearing on the frame face too. So they may see those rips as a clue that repairs are needed. I bet they can smell the honey through those gaps too, and investigate why there is a strong honey smell. :blush:

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Ordered my new Flow Hive… can’t wait for it to come in and get started! This journey will be bizzzzy and fun. Any and all advice would be great! Set up do’s n don’ts, location advice, seasonal issues, etc. Thanks ahead of time! Amy S

Introducing my apprentices. My grandgirls are fascinated by all things bee related.

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Hi! My name is Sarah, and I am a new beekeeper. I’ve watched the Flow Frame buzz for a few years after I saw the kickstarter. This year I made the dive into beekeeping and I’ve got a hive set up at my farm in Oklahoma. So far we have not had any major issues with pests, robbing or mites- so we feel pretty lucky. I had a full bottom super, on recommendation from my mentor I added a second super. They’ve mostly moved into the top super, filled it completely full, are ignoring the bottom super, and are in the flow frames but not filling it yet. They’ve had the flow frames about a month, now. Watching the video on “Why my bees aren’t filling flow frames” and hoping to get some progress soon.

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Hi Sarah, welcome to the Flow forum. You are a bit late in the season to expect any honey in the Flow super for this year. In fact, I would be taking it off the hive at this point and treating for varroa if necessary. The bees should take to it pretty quickly next year, if you have 2 full brood boxes. Feel free to ask any other questions you have, and perhaps have a read of this thread:

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Hi everybody. I am Koos from South Africa and I am just starting out with the bees, I have a coupe of wild swarms that I want to catch and I am planning to start this coming Saturday, if you have any advice it would be appreciated.

Looking forward to learn from you and in the process help our bees.

Regards

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Hello! I am a relatively new beekeeper from coastal British Columbia, Canada. I started my first hive in March and will be entering my first winter soon.

I look forward to learning from everyone!

Ellen

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Hi Koos, Welcome to the group. Very interested to here how you went with the wild swarms. Africa has a different species of bee to most of us. Do you happen to know which species you have i.e. Apis mellifera or scutellata? I understand that it can be quite difficult to keep scutellata in a managed hive due to their frequent swarming nature and aggressiveness.

@Koos1808 Where in RSA are you based?

Kind regards

Deon

@Rodderick We have two honeybee subspecies in South Africa: in the south, we have the cape bee, apis mellifera capensis, and in the north we have apis mellifera scuttellata, the African bee.

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And capensis has fertile workers, yes?

@Dee Correct. I’m attaching pictures of text I think you might find interesting.

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Thank you
Although Capensis workers lay fertile eggs they are still quite thoroughly policed. Worker reproduction is quite costly to a colony in terms of brood rearing efficiency and loss of hive duties. I have read research that has shown egg policing is as effective as it is in Scutellata. Although Capensis worker laid brood is almost a clone of the worker that laid it, so should be accepted by the colony, there is a theory that queen pheromone marks queen laid eggs and is missing from the worker laid eggs.
Do you ever get worker laid brood above the excluder?

@Dee In only 7% of cases does a laying worker lead to a queen being successfully reared.

From what I know, which is negligible at best, there isn’t a problem with workers laying in the super. I shall, however, report back as soon as I reach that milestone.

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Hi fellow bee keepers. I am in Northern Victoria and have just received my first Flow Hive. Am currently assembling it. I have done the roof as I am painting it white to weatherproof it as well as help reduce summer heat. Pity to couver the nice wood. Still debating about painting the sides. May just tongue oil them. My bees are ordered but still 4 weeks away.

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Crikey you have three hives already. Golly gosh that will keep you busy. I am busy with just one. How do you manage with three hives in the 'burbs?

Hi everyone,
Kel and I have just ordered the starter pack and are total beginners so we will be reading all the beginner tips we can. We live in the midwest of WA and would like to know if there are bee suppliers around us.

Hello I have now finished getting my Flow Hive ready for my bees and have added a stand to keep them off the ground.
Waiting for my package of bees to come from Bunyipbees. I have to decide if I will use sugar syrup to feed them at the start.
More research to do. Have spent a day at Beavosbees near Kyabram with 9 other neabys.
Can recommend you do something like this to clarify the things you read and see online.

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Hi there @Handy, that’s a nice-looking setup. Welcome to the forum & hope you have a great start to your beekeeping adventure!

Here in the northeastern US, folks definitely feed sugar syrup to spring packages. Don’t know how it’s done where you are, but I’ve seen others mention Bunyip on here, so maybe someone more experienced isn’t very far away from you & can give you some hands-on help getting started. For now, just post your newbee questions in the Beekeeping Basics category & you will be sure to get great advice.