is the frame being kept warm from a relatively active/strong hive which keeps the wax warm and able to move when turned by the key?
Yes.
Extracted both on the hive bursting at the seams and in a house with ambient internal temperature of 24degC
using 2 Flow keys at time and turning them in a butterfly motion outwards, incrementally, helps with opening any stuck cells
I only use the one key but use it in three positions (L,C,R) and always crack incrementally to minimise risk of flooding.
I typically open-close twice each increment.
what might be happening is an accumulation of stuck/older wax/propolis at the base of the frame/blades and when you’ve reset the frame from previous harvest/s, the blades weren’t pushed back in place properly by the key and thus, this build up in the base has accumulated by the bees depositing wax/propolis as the blades aren’t completely set.
Good suggestion. But generally does not appear to be the issue. After playing around it appears as though the issue was the sections being “sticky” and the wax not breaking. Open-close min. 4 times appears to have resolved most of the issues. There is one small section, 4 columns wide, on one frame where it hasn’t resolved the issue and that might be because that section didn’t reset properly. When I get a chance I’m going to carefully pull that frame apart to see if it was because of a setting issue or something else.
Thanks Skeggley, I will be giving the hybrid a go because I am current running a normal super with a flow frame on top. All starting to become a bit heavy so I will have for the next season a brood and the hybrid and see how that goes.
Ok. Thanks for the feedback and information. I’m going to reach out to colleagues for other thoughts and suggestions. Please let us know how you go with the close inspection and we’d love to see photos.
@Bianca
I went back and had a look and it’s 3 frames (out of 9) affected. Seems to be a common location across the frames. It does not appear to be an alignment issue
I think I’ve managed to get 2 of them to drain but still having issues with the third. This attempt at draining was inside at ambient house temperature of 23degC. That being said, they were located alongside a dehydrator operating at 55degC, so the localised temp was higher than 23degC.
Indicative photos below. The brightness comes from a torch behind the frame.
The wax I scraped with the tooth pick was to show the honey isn’t crystallised. (This frame appears to have an alignment issue at the very back of the frame but where the honey isn’t flowing there didn’t appear to be an issue. I’m going to take another look as I’m not sure if this is the frame that still isn’t draining)
I did an inspection on my Apimaye hive today since the sun has finally appeared.
I did a 3 frame spit from my strongest hive in February and the girls have a queen and are going very well.
Lots of brood and good honey arches on the brood frames as well as the outermost frames being well stocked.
I did have the Qx above the frames but took it off and put the feeders in place just to provide a bit more top insulation.
I may throw a bit of candy in the feeders come spring just to give the girls a boost before I add some flow frames, but we will see how things go. They have to build out another six frames before I even think of putting the flow super on.
While I had the lid off I did a test fit of the Flow Super, all is well.
Let’s see how it goes this time. But sooner or later…
On the other hand, varroatosis is not a new thing, and methods of prophylactics and treatment were well developed even in 80’s. It is extra work and many commercial beekeepers may suffer. For a hobbyist, it will be less tragic, but still more expensive.
For us here, the main challenge will be a bloodless period as it doesn’t happen naturally. We will have to create it. But we will manage
If you have not done it yet, I recommend to put feeders’ caps to “Candy” position. Ants love to build colonies in empty feeders when bees don’t have access to it.
The bees cannot access the upper lid section at all with the feeders in place unless a cover is left off, I have the covers set to candy but thanks for the reminder.
I tend to get native black cockroaches setting up home in my hives where the bees cannot get to them. We have to protect our natives
Yes, bees cannot access space under the lid. Last year, when it started to get cooler, I found several colonies of small black ants right inside of feeders. At that time covers were set into syrup position. I cleaned feeders and switched covers to candy. It allows bees to access space inside feeders and deal with ants there.
The deadly parasite that has affected honey bee populations has been detected hundreds of kilometres from initial sites in Newcastle, with a new emergency zone in north-west New South Wales.
University of New England Researcher and Apiarist Carolyn Sonter:
“I would encourage anyone who is concerned to check their locations and wipe their hives down with an alcohol wash and two rinses of water to detect the mites if you possibly can today.”
Not sure about cane toads but varroa may spread for 6-11 km in 3 months. If not for modern means of transportation, it would take 3-4 generations to cross Australia. But, yes, a commercial freight or even a malicious act and it is done.
Does I spread differently small hive beetle will need to be one of the questions to. This pest has been on the eastern seaboard for some time, even in the east Kimberley.
I don’t think we can use SHB as an example. If SHB may travel substantial distances on their own, varroa is dependent on the host. If it takes varroa 32 days to get from the infested hive to a clean one 100 metres away, for SHB such distance would be negligible. I am not familiar with the physiology of SHB, but they should be much tougher than varroa. Without a host, varroa is sensitive to water loss, dies reasonably quick in direct sunlight etc.
It is rather a question of how soon migratory beekeepers may deliver it to the border and pick it up on our side.
I think it can be as the major restriction on movement is the natural landscape and biosecurity controls in place. Varroa need to overcome them too. Like all our efforts it is about restricting movement of bee products into WA and having appropriate detection and eradication on our land and sea entrances. There is more work being done in this area to improve on the sentinel hive model.
