Perth (WA, AU) Flowhives and honey flow

Tony, I’m NoR so not near Armadale. However, monitoring temp and humidity of my hive all winter has seen a fairly constant temperature range of 23degC (night) to 26degC (day), with a low of 21degC on a couple of nights. This has been when the hive consisted of a full brood box, largely empty super, and was typically partially shaded for a good chunk of the day (until late afternoon). Aside from wet days my bees were reasonably active all winter (sufficient things in flower around me). I’ve found keeping the hive dry more of an issue than keeping it warm. Given we are here in the West I don’t think we have the same concerns through winter that you often read about, as most of the stuff I’ve read regarding temperature concerns is focussed more often on the Northern hemisphere.

Armadale isn’t quite Albany…and it certainly isn’t Thredbo…but if you can position your hive to get some sun in the winter that would help (i.e. don’t position your hive in permanent winter shade unless perhaps it is nearby a heat source that keeps it warm).

Slatted racks provide dead air space below the brood chamber. This layer of air helps to keep the bees cooler in summer and warmer in winter. In the summer when populations are high, bees congregate in this area which reduces congestion in the hive, spreads out the heat load, and facilitates ventilation by fanning. This increase of space and lessening of heat seems to decrease swarming as well. In the winter, when the entrances are reduced, the air space within the slatted rack acts as an insulating layer between the brood chamber and the cold area below the hive. It also removes the brood nest further from the drafty entrance.

Because a slatted rack moves the bottom of the brood chamber further from the entrance, the queen tends to lay eggs all the way to the bottom of the frames, thus extending the brood pattern.

Here are some caveats about using slatted racks…

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This is what a slatted rack looks like:
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/8-Frame-ASSEMBLED-Slatted-Rack/productinfo/8672A/

You put it on top of your bottom board, and underneath the lowest brood box. They are used to help increase hive ventilation, and give bees some “hangout” space inside the hive but away from the frames. There is also an opinion that they reduce the draft on the lowest part of the bottom brood frames, enabling the queen to lay much lower in the frames without the brood getting chilled. I believe the concept was invented by the famous beekeeper, C C Miller.

If you can’t buy them in Australia, Rusty Burlew has a design on her website for a 10-frame version. If you are handy with wood, I guess you could just adjust the dimensions slightly for an 8-frame Flow hive.

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WSP - (Named after Mr. Wyn Pender, a famous Australian manufacturer of equipment) @ 195mm tall.
We only really have the choice of full depth and wsp from what I’ve seen. Full depth @ 240mm

Thanks for the salted rat build instructions guys. More work…

@SnowflakeHoney how are you monitoring hive temps and how are the BW bees?

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I’ve been using a Broodminder (http://broodminder.com/). It originally came from an Indiegogo campaign a few months after the Flowhive campaign. I’ve got it sat on top of frame 4 or frame 5 in the brood box between the excluder and the bottom and the bottom of the super. It lets me view plots of the data on my phone, export to email (csv) or sync with Beekeeping.io (http://app.beekeeping.io/; basic accounts are free). The image comes from Beekeeping.io (unfortunately it only seems to allow degF. The Broodminder phone app shows degC or degF.

As for my bees, they’ve been healthy all winter and all seems ok; the colony has more than quadrupled in size over winter. The queen is certainly healthy and the bees are reasonably docile (I can usually take a short look inside the hive without any gear, even in the cooler weather, with no issues). When I got the nuc it appeared to be come with noticeably older frames (based on the discolouration) but otherwise it’s good. I’ve included a picture below of frame #1 in the brood chamber, which they interestingly didn’t touch all winter but in the last 3wks have almost fully built out; this frame also appears to have the majority of the drone cells that have started to appear in my hive.

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Thanks all for the information.
This is all new to me and I am on a steep learning curve.
I have also asked on my local FB page to meet up with local backyard bee kepers, so I can see what they are up to and ask them questions too.

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Miserable weather this week. :frowning:
The geraldton wax is smelling of honey though. :slight_smile:

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Hi Alan
My hive is in the Joondalup area as well.
His hive is located in Leeming I believe. I will try and find you at the next Waas meeting if you like, so we can catch up? I completed the 101 introduction to beekeeping. I might check out UWA course as well, I found Tiffany (from ciber) most informative.
Cheers Tim

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Not to be alarmist, but the pattern of missing cells in your brood frame has the potential to be wax moth. Is it honey in those lines of cells? Or brood? It’s a bit difficult to tell from the photo. Interested to know what others think.

How many frames of brood do you have? Do they all have this amount of drone comb?

Will read up on broodminder, thanks for posting the info.

RBK, not alarmist at all. If I ever post a picture I’m more than happy for someone to make comments, give advice, or raise a possible issue.

Assuming you mean the diagonal line through the middle it is mainly honey except towards the bottom it starts to include brood. If you click on the image you should see a larger version of it that will give you a better look.

In relation to wax moth, I’ve not noticed anything in the hive that would make me suspect I have it (I have noticed the odd mosquito every now and again in between the top board and the roof, plus one spider used the same space to shelter for a short while). When I say I haven’t noticed evidence of wax moth I’m basing it on what I can discern from here - Vic Ag Dept - and here - Bee Aware - and here-PDF-NSW DPI -. If you’ve got something for me to look at in addition to those sources please feel free to post the link.

I thought I had “something” in the hive because in the top outside section in a few of the cells of two of the empty flow frames there appeared to be ‘dirt’ but it was no where else in the hive (maybe from last time I handled the frames??). There was also nothing that I could spot when I last inspected the bottom board, nothing else I noticed when going through half the brood box this time, and nothing I noticed the last time I went through every frame. I’m happy to hear any guesses you might have based on this photo though (it was the best picture I could take).

That previous photo in my earlier post is of frame #1 and it was the only one I spotted any drone comb on (I only looked through half the hive though, but previously there was only a small section on one other frame that hadn’t been drawn when I looked about 3wks ago).

I’ve got brood to some extent across all 9 frames, with at least 5 or 6 of them quite full with brood based on recollection when I did the last full inspection (I’ve got 9 frames in the brood box that came with the flowhive setup…it was the simplest way to take up the excessive gap).

looks like propolis?

Hmmm…could be. That never actually crossed my mind… :confused:

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The honey flow is on in the city. I think its the geraldton wax. There’s lots planted by the railway and the one in my back garden is surrounded by bees. Native and european.

They are also working hard collecting pollen off my dog rose.

The hives have heaps of nectar and brood and no queen cells. I dont think they are storing in the flow frames yet but the two brood boxes are filling up.

Has anyone else noticed the surge in nectar?

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Well, I’ve noticed an increase in activity in my hive in the last 3days. I’ve seen the ambient temperature increase, humidity decrease, and the bees actively and consistently spending more time in the super. On Wed I had only a handful of bees on my flow frames. Today when I took a look I had 3 of the flow frames half covered in bees that were busy working to fill the gaps in the frames etc.

At least for where I am the warm Wed seems to have made a difference to the level of activity. Fingers crossed it continues…

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There is a few plans out there.

This one Slatted Bottom Rack | Beesource Beekeeping Forums is the simplest design.

This one you can make without special rebating https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-9cdv9kBzTgg/VQ9kj5F3RYI/AAAAAAAAEgw/GK8Klzn3B_k/w1024-h678-no/_JEA9912m-cr.jpg.

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Hi,
My name is Colin and I live near Toodyay.The bees came last Monday for the Flow Hive and seem to have settled in well<

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Hi colin. Congrats.

What have you got between the two boxes? Paper?

Did you buy a nuc? One doesnt normally put the super box on until the bottom box is 80% full of comb.

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Hi Dunc,
Yes just newspaper the theory is that when the nuc is strong enough they chew the paper out and move upstairs.
Nuc was bought from a very experienced Queen breeder who lives not far from me.
We can have ants from time to time hence only two poles greased with vaseline.
Frame has room for another hive I believe you can never have just one.:slight_smile:

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Hiya Toodyay, welcome to the forum. Plenty of good advice on general beekeeping and everything Flow here.
Although I see your logic, what Dunc says makes sense, tried and proven. Maybe remove the super and let the colony build and experiment with your next colony. :wink:
It seems the nucs are becoming available here in Perth, I’m picking up a BW nuc tomorrow and put off a Gu nuc until the next batch. They would have been available today however work commitments conflicted. When it rains it pours. :slight_smile: So much for 2 weeks notice…
But yippee anyway. :yippee:

(The suppliers names are abbreviated as I choose not to endorse either supplier yet, I will reserve judgement until later when they have been living side by side. Each say theirs are the best… We shall see…)

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Hi Toodyay,
I haven’t seen newspaper used for anything other than merging colonies, did someone suggest this newspaper method to you? I agree with Dunc in that you should remove the super until the colony is strong, the major benefit being you don’t have to move boxes to inspect the hive’s progress.

The nucs are picking up in the east too, early orders from queen breeders are arriving now so it’s going to start getting busy!

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