Order of frames

Ok brand new bee keeper here I have been doing tons of reading on it and try to stay educated so I can keep my bees alive and well. This is week three I did the initial inspection it was good added the nuc to the hive, second week I did the inspection and showed my wife how because I can’t be in town all the time with my work. Week 3 she does inspection tons of new larva and everything looked good but she thought it might be a good Idea to alternate the frames so she put a full on then empty one and so on with all 9 I kept one out for room. So my question is should I rush home and try to re group the frames in the middle, or is it to late and my bees.

I wouldn’t rush home, but it would have been better to leave them all close together. When you rearrange the frames and split them up like that, it tends to set the hive back and slow down progress. While that is fine in a strong, established hive, it makes life harder for a nucleus. They should be OK for a week or so, until you can fix it.

Your hive is a 10 frame set up, it is designed that way and it has the right spacings between the frames if you have all the frames in the box. You have not done your bees a favor by leaving one out.
You may be lucky also having mixed the frames up if the weather is fine and warm but that should not be done, think for a moment, the bees have set up their home as they wanted it. By mixing up the frames you have made chaos out of their order.
It seems you have not understood what you have been reading, no book or internet information will advise what you have done. I would advise you rectify both of these and joining a bee club or at least asking for advise and then following it is best.
We are here on the forum to give good advise to beginners in bee keeping and welcome to the forum but please for the sake of your bees, ask before you leap. Sorry if I’m sounding tough on you but there is no point in having bees and not doing right by them.
Regards

It is actually an 8 frame hive, and he put an extra one in to fill the space. Flow made the 8 frame boxes slightly on the wide side, so you can do this, but it does mess up the bee space next to the outer wall of the box, so I don’t recommend it.

Ok, I stand corrected. But where did you find it was an 8 frame hive and a flow hive? Am I missing something Dawn?
Regards

The CIA told me… :male_detective:

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Those frames seem very widely spaced.

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Looks like a corner of flow roof on ground @Peter48 … Ex ASIO

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Mmmm, Now your pulling my leg…

And by the bridging comb they have been in that position some time Wilfred, ok if all you want the bees for is wax production, and the wax price is going up that might be the way to go :grin:

Dawn has hold of one of my legs and now you are pulling the other one as well :grin:

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Peter,

Easy to see that corner of a Flow-hive roof thus an 8 frame Langstroth… over that last couple year people have been trying to jam that ninth frame in there.

Looks like those frames haven’t been jammed shoulder to shoulder for couple weeks n thus the bees get very creative bridging all the gaps with the extra wax.

Uploading…

Here’s my 8 frame Flow-Hive pushed shoulder to shoulder thus limited to no bridging wax … Bees have to work hard enough so don’t like giving them opertunity to waste wax n time.

Ta ta,
Gerald

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I did a hive recently for a friend 1 1/4 inches wider than an 8 frame langstroth, It had not been looked at for years. I had to use a shovel to prize the lid off and then to get the frames out to extract the honey. I got more wax than honey with just tunnels between the frames. That little job burnt up 12 hours and a really bent hive tool. The things we do for friends.
Regards

I thought that Flow made both the 8 frame langstroth (6 Flow frames wide) or a 10 frame langstroth (7 Flow frames wide)?

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That is right Dan, the boxes were home made and miss measured and are conventional langstroth apart from being too wide if that is what you are asking.
Getting cold up here with winter finally arrived, a 12c overnight and 23 max this past week.
Cheers

Hi Peter, no sorry I wasn’t responding to your comment, it was just in relation to comments by others above. As far as I know, Flow hives can be either 10 frame or 8 frame langstroth widths, so simply knowing the hive is a Flow hive will not in itself tell you which of the two it is. I feel for you in the cold there. You may even need to put a long sleeved shirt on…:laughing:

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Dan,

Your correct ! Flow-hive does manufacture n sell both. I have versions in my Apiary but the one Dawn/Peter/ me, myself n I are dealing with here is the 8/6 version not the 10/7 frame version (@ least my flow-Super-7 is on a 10 Langstroth)… Thankz for your imput (others may not be aware of that)… Getting older I’m trying to slowly change overfrom 10 frame to lighter 8 frame equipment. Here’s a pix or so of the pair of Flow’s n frame set up !

Cheers :clinking_glasses:,
Gerald

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Hello Gerald, I kicked off this time around with bee keeping with the 8 frame hives for the same reason you are changing over to them. I wouldn’t even attempt lifting a 10 frame box now, the old bones and muscles would call time out on me but I can bench press a glass of wine every night so I’m happy.:grinning:

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Well Pete I am new to bee keeping yes and yes I know that was defiantly the wrong move maybe you didn’t really read or understand the questions but yes for the sake of the bees it was corrected the same day

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Yes I understood what you said. My point is that the box would take 10 frames and removing one is not the right way to manage the hive. Doing that promotes comb building where you don’t want it to be.
There is lots of help here on the forum and if you can’t find answers to a particular problem then there are many members here to help. It is better for your bees to ask for help first if you are not sure what to do.
Regards