Hello
This is my first winter packdown.I currently have 2 brood boxes and an ideal box on my hive (8 frames). The ideal is full of honey. The middle brood box has 2 full frames of honey and lots of brood. The bottom box has one full frame of honey and then all the other frames have tiny (each frame-about 20 cells) filled with pollen & smail amounts of patchy brood.I was going to take the bottom box off for winter. Question is;
They have plenty of honey but will they be ok without any pollen? (There wasn’t any in the top 2 boxes). Should I feed them pollen?and how much?
Thank you
Dan
Hello and welcome to the Flow forum!
Looking at your general climate (without knowing a major town nearby), I would say they will be fine with minimal pollen. I certainly would not feed them pollen or pollen sub at this time of the season. If you do, you may get a burst of bees which then need honey at a time when there is no nectar… It is all a question of balance. 
I am in southern California. Probably a bit warmer than you, depending on where exactly you are. My hives never go broodless. My mentor (I have 30 years of experience, but not all of it where I now live) says that the brood box should have a decent frame of pollen going into winter. If his don’t, he feeds them mid-autumn with a limited amount of pollen sub, then feeds a whole lot more just as spring is about to start.
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Echo @Dawn_SD
If you are close to town there are usually a lot of garden flowers about which are poor in nectar but rich in pollen. Two broods and an Ideal full of honey I believe more than adequate. Talk to any other beekeepers in your area for confirmation.
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I think Dan said he plans to take the bottom brood box away.
Hi @Bee5, is that what locals recommend?
It always depends on your individual colony and it would be hard to judge if this is your first hive. All you can do is go by local advice, but if possible, get a second and third opinion.
I can’t advice anything. We run single brood boxes mainly and for winter only take additional supers off, so over winter dearth, just have a single brood and single super for stores.
If your colony still has brood in the lower box, and stores, why take it away? Maybe they have a winter plan? Maybe they keep it for insulation? Could be their pollen stores for spring?
I guess they would be pretty shocked if their careful winter preps got taken away from under them.
Just set your mind to understanding your bees, away from commercial interests.
The bees will likely keep up their numbers to be able to defend the frames they have.
In the end, go by local advice, commercial AND bee-centric.
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Thank you so much to everyone for their advice! Its really great to have your support on hand being a newbie. 
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Hi all,
I’m a total Novice beekeeper and I live on the Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria. I placed my nuc into the brood box at the end of October '19; the brood came along nicely and at the start of Feb '20 placed the HoneyFlow super. Delivered the first HoneyFlow honey on 23 March and drew off 2 frames - awesome. Another 2 frames were also full at the time but decided to leave them for Winter. I now have 5/6 full frames for their winter store: Too much, too little?
What to do for packdown?
- Do I leave the super in place and just remove the excluder?
- Move the bottom board into the higher slot?
Any advice is welcome.
Thank you in advance.
Welcome to the forum Sergio, you will find lots of reading here and people happy to pass on advice.
I’m on the Sunshine Coast in Qld, a much hotter climate than you have any month of the year. I experimented with both positions and even up here the slider is permanently in the top position.
As for removing the excluder I don’t as the flow super can end up with the queen moving into it and in the Spring as that is where the cluster is you will have issues when you refit the QX with drone being trapped above it. That said it is all about how cold and long your Winter is there. But while there is honey in the super I would want to keep it on the hive.
Next season maybe add a full depth traditional super during the warmer months to increase the stores available for the bees over Winter. Is your hive a single or a double brood, and only the Flow super on it? Your Winter is cold and often a cold wind added so
I would ask your local bee group for some local advice.
Cheers
Thanks for the great advice Peter. It makes sense to keep the QX in situ as I don’t understand the rationale for removing it. My hive is a single with only the Flow super on top.
I only put the slider in the top position once as it was advised to do this when tapping off the honey. By the time I’d finished with drawing the honey from two of the frames the bees had already started bearding out front! Too warm for them at the time.
I had another super ready to go but thought against it as I didn’t think they’d be able to fill it sufficiently before winter hit. Definitely next season.
Yes, I’m in the process of also getting info from the local club - just not sure how many “Flow Hivists” there are!
Thanks again.
In a really cold climate like Mt Hotham removing the QX is an option to allow the cluster to move up higher in the hive out of any cold drafts coming in the entrance. But as I say, doing that can introduce an issue in the Spring. A better option in my opinion in that sort of climate is to reduce the hive entrance and wrap the hive in polystyrene about 10mm thick and held in place with duct tape to keep the hive warm. Maybe go middle of the road where you are, the blue insulation plastic used on housing construction or the insulating bubble wrap is worth looking into, both are available at Bunnings. Another option is the really heavy duty black plastic sheeting taped in place that will reduce the wind chill and act as a heat sinks as well.
Next season add a traditional super for the bees for honey stores over Winter, what they don’t need can be crushed and strained in the Spring and the bees will refill it over the Summer.
Bearding is something to expect after you extract, especially if you get a honey spill but I have some for a few hours after extracting regardless of a spill or not. The bees will settle again as they calm down after being disturbed and they will get back into the hive and start working on cleaning up the super.
Cheers
I would be be more inclined to add an additional brood than a super for areas which get pretty cold in Winter.
What most beekeepers use in your area is key. Check around the district one brood or two.
I personally use two in the SW of WA as I found the 2 broods responded much quicker than 1 brood come Spring and filled the Flow quicker.
The beauty of the flow is that you don’t have to run more than one super…when its full -drain and continue.
With a traditional super can’t you just harvest two frames at a time in a spinner? The advantage I see in flow supers is the ease of extracting not that you can harvest a frame at a time? Is that right?
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I understand your point Wilfred but adding another brood box without adding extra space for honey storage can be a mistake. As with so much in bee keeping it is about balancing things out. When I was in the Hawkesbury and at Mudgee a double brood box was the only way to go with a full box of honey over winter but if the winter was long, wet and really cold then often extra stores were needed. Feeding syrup wasn’t the way to go back then.
I’m happy to take capped frames from a Langstroth super and leave some, it works not just for a Flow Hive, it is a choice with any hive.
Cheers
Your exactly right, you can take single frames from a Langstroth, as I do. My idea is to always have a few frames of honey remaining in the hive for the bees which can be done with both systems. As with a Flow hive you can easily get by with a single super in a Langstroth by extracting as needed so that there is always honey in the hive as well as empty frames for honey from a flow.
Cheers
Yes that is right.
I very very often do just one or two frames. Particularly toward the end of a big nectar flow. The frames are filling more slowly and unevenly.
You could do one frame a day for a week if you liked. 
Edit Changed the No to a yes. I misread the post
There is no reason you can’t extract single frames from a Langstroth the same as with a Flow Hive, which was @BooBees question mate. I’m constantly taking 4 or 5 capped frames for extracting and replacing them with stickies on a well packed super. It does work on a Langstroth exactly the same as extracting a frame or two in a Flow super.
Cheers