Overwintering flow hives east coast

Flow Hive
1

We are ready to place our order but need real time experience to what we do to overwinter in the east coast US. Do we remove flow frames or what

2

Perhaps I should start with a an intuitive guess. You may think that this is a company advertising place. It isn’t. This forum is made up of thousands of beekeepers who are interested in bees, or in the Flow hive, but more than 99% of us have zero connection with Flow. We are willing to help you, but we are not trying to sell you a product. :blush:

Yes. And…

  1. You join a local beekeeping club and ask lots of questions.
  2. You buy or borrow as many books about traditional beekeeping as you can and read them all
  3. You build up at least 2 brood boxes before you add the Flow super, and you read this Forum about how to do that (Search function is for winners)
  4. You learn about Varroa and other pests and learn how to monitor for and then control them

Beekeeping takes effort. The Flow system takes some of the effort out of harvesting, but you still need to learn how to be a responsible beekeeper within your climate zone. The Flow hive doesn’t change that. :wink:

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3

I agree with all that.
You need to learn beekeeping before you harvest honey and the Flow is just an alternative method of removing that honey so joining a club and getting experience with somebody else’s bees is a good start

5

Best to get involved with a local club or buddy beekeeper ( find a Flowhive champion)
After discussing this subject at length recently ( I’m in Australia ) here’s my advice and a statement.
Get a Flowhive - Paint it however you choose.
Wash it and dry it in the sun - make sure the paint is cured. Get some help to drop in your bees and wait until you have maximum numbers. Buy yourself a 1/2 depth box and frames and let them fill it with Honey.
Take these off and Bank it in the freezer ( cut some out for a taste). This is your honey stores for winter. Let’s not get crazy about sugar feeds - when you have honey reserves to feed them. Drop on your Flow frame box. ( washing these in advance also - /spray with honey water). At the end of season drain off the honey - and leave the frames cranked. The bees will clean them nicely in a day or 2. Store you Flow frame box and drop on the half depth with full honey frames. It insulates and they have their own food stores as needed. No sugar required.

1 Like
6

Great response! Where in Australia are you? I’ve been wondering about wintering bees in the Wollongong region.