Your beginners journey reads much like ours a year earlier, with bees back in the car after the beginners course.
We are up Byron way, in the mountains.
Our bees depend on National Park forage, which is not constant as down in urban areas, but the honey we do get is utterly awesome.
I reckon, if your broodbox is full and busy, add the flow super. It takes a fair bit of bees’ work to prepare the flow frames, at least you’ll be up and running for spring.
You could help the bees build that last frame with a small sugar syrup baggie on the board under the roof if your flow isn’t strong enough right now. Then rub some burr comb on the flow frames, put the box on and see what happens.
If it fails and it doesn’t get busy up in the flow box before winter, or problems arise, such as chalkbrood, you can always condense them back down into the broodbox.
All depends on your locality, but generally I would think the hunter valley has forage all year round.
Our first nuc was acquired end November, put the flow box on mid December (a bit early because we had to go away for a month), and by Feb we harvested our very first frame. By April, we had harvested all flow frames, except frame 1 and 6. And they say 2017 was a really bad Honey year.
Well, we caught the bug and split and did stuff, so we now have 7 active hives, ready for 10 (our limit).
Good luck to your journey.
Get at least a second hive though. Flow or not.
Ah, the second brood box. I tried it on one of my hives. The bees filled the equivalent of a box with honey down there. Won’t do that again.
Unless your local advice urges you to have 2 brood boxes, I wouldn’t go that way.
It’s probably a safer way for people who don’t want to manage their hives in spring, I don’t know. Might work.
I rather have the flow frames filled and do a split in spring if needed. There’s your second hive!
To be sure, you can always order a queen from a reputed breeder.
Hi Warwick,
What a lovely spot is Gresford, you cannot go wrong there. As for your bees, what is flowering in the area at the moment? this will determine your next step with the bees. Closer to the coast the paperbarks are flowering in abundance, this is bringing in nectar for a honey harvest and pollen for raising healthy young bees.
Its still warm, so you can move those outer empty frames closer to the middle of the brood, just move them in two or three frames on each side.
My question is why? Do you think you need two brood boxes? personally there is nothing wrong with going this way but it does have a few drawbacks.
More bees - not really… a number of commercial beekeepers found the no. of bees to be the same
More food storage for the bees - yes… so 2 brood boxes will help in colder areas, however a single box is also beneficial in cooler areas as the cluster as less room to keep warm and thus needing less food during the cooler months. (in areas of deep snow this does not apply)
Better overwintering - not in this part of the world
Swarm Management - is not a simple explanation nor is there a perfect remedy. Some say that bees swarm less with double brood, I am not so sure. With a single brood box, inspection and frame/brood manipulation is an easier task as it needs to be performed every 2-3 weeks during spring, it also helps to cycle out older frames & brood wax (this is essential). This will still need to be done with a double brood setup and there are twice as many frames to inspect and manipulate.
The Urban Beehive team operate single brood setups, I am hoping they will have explained the process to you during the course.
Your brood box in my opinion should be full, I know the recommendation is 75-80% full, but if you want to see some action in the Flow super then the bees will only start using it when they have no where else to go and a good nectar flow in the area. Keep an eye on those trees.
Your hive looks beautiful! FYI, the super is on back to front. You want the curved removable panel to be at the back of the hive for harvesting, and the FLOW logo on the roof should be above the landing board.
Thanks Rodderick, i am thinking I will just add the flow super this weekend. After some recent rain things seem to have picked up and the last frame in the brood box has now got honey in it,
Hola Matias, hey me gustaría saber si recibiste bien tu hive y cómo te ha resultado, con un grupo de amigos queremos comprar una pero nos gustaría saber de la experiencia de otro chileno, nos podríamos poner en contacto? Saludos y muy buena semana!
Hello everyone, my name is Pablo, I’m from Santiago, Chile, I am a seminarian and with a group of priests and other students we want to settle some hives in the seminary, we would like to get all the possible advices in order to have a good experience. We are excited and happy to start this project!
I am close to 40, I have a beautiful girlfriend and two lovely children at 5 and 7. I am a newbee to Flow Hive.
I saw a youtube video about all that delicious honey. We love honey in this family, but we only have a small garden, so I doubt if we have space for our own bee house here in the southern part of Aarhus (Højbjerg, Denmark)? We hope we can. I am looking forward to reading more about everything here at Flow Forum and getting in touch with someone who can help us on the way.
I would like to go all-in for the honeyworld so I hope to get som nice tricks from all of you here on FlowForum ️
Did you end up getting your hive setup? I am really interested in getting one of these Flow 2 hives and taking advantage of a bit of land im on up here in Newport. I am going to start to research different native flowing plants that I can plant leading upto setting up a hive but interested to hear about how you went with yours.
Be good to get different options for plants for different seasons so I can have a good run of honey all year. Not sure if this is possible or not but worth looking into.
Did you find it easy to get a pack of bees for your hive?
Fortunately your bees will fly over your fence for a few klm’s to forage for nectar and pollen. You could plant a range of flowers in your garden but that is only a very small part of what they need, but at least it is something for them.
Welcome to the forum, lots of reading and good advise here.
Regards
Hello Mary. I’m thinking of setting up a Flow Hive at home here in Moycullen, Galway. How well have the flow hives worked for you in Westport? Thanks, Fintan 086 812 8881.
Hello, guys! I am Stephannie Baker from Chicago and I am new to the forum. My parents used to cultivate honey using bees and I was very fond of the process and very scared of bees, too. I am happy to be in this forum and know about this technique as much as possible.
Hi I’m Robyn from Bendigo area in Victoria. I’m a keen organic gardener, very interested in becoming self sufficient, just getting a fruit orchard going and seriously would like to learn more about bees with the view of getting a hive or two. Would be great to meet any locals with Flow Hives too. Cheers
Hello Monica, my name is Robyn. You’re the closest person that I’ve seen here so far to the Bendigo area. How are you going with your bees? I’d love to chat as I have much to learn and the Flow Hives do sound an easier option for obtaining honey with less impact on the bees. I look forward to chatting soon.
Just received our Flow Hive 2 yesterday. Been studying beekeeping for the past 12 months and decided to take the next step in owning my own little family of buzzy bees. My 11yr old (Eloise) and partner (Shelley) are just as excited about having our own pollinators to care for.
Our first Hive and picking up our first Bees soon.
Welcome to the forum Dean, you will find lots of help and advice here as you will without a doubt get into situations where you suddenly realize you know less than you thought, but that is totally normal.
A common mistake is to disturb the colony for no real reason other than the temptation to “just have a look”. Give the bees time to settle into accepting their new home and bond to it with new brood to care for. Do hive inspections regularly for any issues and to know the condition of the colony.
Regards, Peter
so I hope to get som nice tricks from all of you here on FlowForum 
️
