Hi Guys, I’m a brand newbie, anxious but excited!!
I have my Flow Hive ready to go, and had been doing my research into packaged bees vs local swarm, when a local friend of a friend offered me 8x established frames to drop straight into my Flow Hive Brood Box?
He initially wanted me to take his entire box, which isn’t what I want after 3x coats of varnish on my beautiful new Flow Hive, but he assures me his frames will fit perfectly into my new box?
This idea kinda appeals to me, as the task of trying to keep the comb straight is already keeping me awake at night, but I really need to know how successful this will be?
I’d like to stay on the right side of this friend of a friend, as he’s a 70 yr old who has had bees forever and has already said I can chew his ear, BUT he’s also a Flow Hive sceptic, so it’s super important to me that this all happens easy…
TIA
You are on a winner with an already fully established hive. As long as they are deep frames you’ll be right to go. Personally I would take all the wooden ware, sit it were your hive will be for a week or two, then transfer into your woodenware. This will then give you a spare brood box when you need to do swarm management. The benefits of getting a fully established hive is they’ll start to fill a super when the flow starts rather than waiting for a Nuc to establish.
Good luck with what ever you do.
Adam
I reckon this bloke sounds to me like he is well worth involving in the process. He’ll probably end up being really fascinated with the Flow super and I imagine would have a wealth of knowledge for you to learn from.
Thanks, Adam - I hadn’t thought of that!! I suppose, I could just keep them in the box they’re in for the moment, and wait til I’m confident to transfer them over myself? There really is no reason why I have to have them in the new box straight away…
Exactly, Dan!! I don’t think he’s totally opposed to the Flow Hive, just doesn’t personally have them as he’s been successfully established for years and years. The knowledge he has cannot be bought…
Sounds like he may be the perfect local mentor if he is interested.
Adam
Go for it I haven’t had any trouble with old frames or others frames fitting our stardard boxes. Even our Dads ancient frames are exactly the same size. In time you will need to rotate them out anyway for good hive maintenance so always good to have spare frames in the ready. You can do up any old frames in the future. Good luck your going to have a great experience 
Thanks, Gaz
Tuesday is B-day - I’ll let you know how it goes 
Great, don’t forget the photos
I’m an Aussie “old timer”. I’m more opposed to the hive itself than the actual flow frames. The flow frames is just another way to harvest the honey.
I like a solid floor, a migratory lid & I promote the use of properly fitted wax foundation in the brood box. Then there’s those CHEAP plastic QXs.
Like someone told me yesterday (someone who knows nothing about bees) “In my wisdom & at GREAT EXPENSE, I bought a flow hive”. Then he whinged about the $110 I charge for a bee colony with a new queen. Then a further whinge at me charging him to wire up & place foundation on his brood frames. No thank you for my free time and information.
Just a little tip. If that 70 yo beekeeper who has kept bees forever does share some time & information with you, don’t be frightened to reward him with some kind of gratuity.
-whist on this topic of gratuity, I reckon the Flow team/company should consider gifting JeffH. half a dozen Flow frames - actually, they could give him the box too with the viewing windows - as a “thank you” for all the advice he gives here. He has been on the Flow Forum for the long haul and has given so much great advice. I’m sure he would give them a go and there is no real need for the Flow SBB or the roof as he could use (assuming he has spares) any exisiting solid floor and migratory lid.
Many thanks Dan, it wouldn’t be necessary. I have a stack of gear not in use at the moment. I get to see flow frames in use, I don’t need any for myself.
I probably shouldn’t have made my observations about that flow hiver public, after all he did order a colony from me.
I was just talking about the cheap QX to Wilma, saying that for the cost involved, you’d expect better. It’s like buying a Louis Vuitton handbag that comes with a cheap Chinese made clasp.
Thanks to @Semaphore for raising the issue of the QX
Yes, but he is a cheap-skate, as we say in the UK. $110??? Wow, what a bargain. In the US, you are lucky to get a 4 or 5 frame nucleus for under $180. He is getting a full box. That kind of behaviour makes whingeing Poms look alright… 
Hi Dawn, I sell a colony, but it’s not a big colony, about 4 or 5 frames of bees with a young mated proven queen.
I rest my case - you would get 3 frames of bees for $180 in the US. 
The other 2 frames are either honey and pollen or foundation.
I must do this next year - we recovered about $300 from honey this year, but the outlay was many times that. If I make some good splits, they could pull in quite a nice bit of recovery of equipment cost. You are very generous Jeff and Wilma, and under appreciated by your local community. At least we appreciate you both here. 
That’s on an exchange frames basis, so there is also established brood in that. Last night a bloke who previously got 2 colonies from me ordered another one, but this time he wants enough bees in the box to take it up to $200. In this case he’ll get a full box of bees & brood, ready for a second super.
PS, thank you Dawn.
Hi Dawn, remember that rain I thought was coming 2 days ago? It has only just arrived. I’ve been running around like a blue-tail fly applying fertilizer & pulling large weeds & mulching in readiness for it.
On the subject of whinging. Never mind whinging poms. Aussies are pretty good at it. You only have to listen to talk back radio for a little while to hear it.
While I’m typing this, the birds turned up. I’ll see what I can find for them, cheers
jeff also sells his honey at amazing bargain basement prices! I hope you have considered a small price rise @jeffH? Whilst I appreciate your affordability and 20th Century pricing- you are letting the team down… I am so enamored with my own honey- even when I sell it for $15 a KG- I feel like it was me that was robbed not the bees. But I have to sell it- I can’t eat 50 kg’s- and there is so much more on the way… Yesterday I took two kg’s to my local Thai take away- they paid cash for one- and the other paid for my green curry with rice. I definitely felt like they got the better deal- even though the curry was very good.
and jeff: don’t listen to that talk back- it will rot your brain! Those buggers make a pile of cash from whingeing. Paid to be miserable and dissatisfied…
Hi Jack, we recently bumped it up to $6 - $6.40. Would you believe that we got a couple of negative comments while telling the customers. On the whole, no complaints. I just wish I had some to sell. One of the negative comments come from a bloke who I expected a comment from, he didn’t let me down. Then another bloke got a bit funny while filling his bottle the other day with the little bit of honey that I did have. You’d think that $6.40 a kilo was going to break his bank 
We’re having some nice rain after some good rain a couple of weeks ago, so we might get a honey flow this summer.
I only listen to the ABC. I think the producers keep a tight rein & keep the whinging down. Especially on Makka’s program.
The cheek! Complaining at $6.40. Some people… a kilo of brown sugar can cost as much. I would be tempted to put the price up again - a special price just for whiners- $10. Take it or leave it🤗