We know there are other topics related to this but I think more info is better than less.
We had originally planned on dividing the flow frames to fit a box with 3 and one with 4, but in the end because of our aversion to mixing wood frames with plastic we decided the best way to go was one box with all frames in it. For some reason in the past our bees ignore the plastic when there are wood frames in a box mixed with plastic frames. Overall, I’ve provided close ups so that you can see exactly how they all fit. I think the instructions were well made and easy to follow but we were very happy the inch system was provided and not just metric. It eliminated having to do conversion math. Basically you only need basic tools but we had a whole wood shop to work in and we had this completed in about 2 hours. Just a word of caution is that if you are not to good working with wood make sure for every hole you make for screws and or nails that you make a pilot hole as this will eliminate splitting the wood when installing them.
About the biggest concern we had was what type of material we wanted to use to secure the bottom of box after we cut the bigger door out. We selected from the junk pile a piece of galvanized steel strap and cut it to fit the length. As you can see it does have a slight lip on bottom but we see no problem that will create. We did need to plane the bottom of door to have snug fit. I still need to put a handle on it and get a couple of small nail to help hold the top little door in place. I’m not to sure about the honey stick handle on top as it might get in way of cover, but we will check that later on. The screws we used are one inch long wood screws and after a few adjustments they do make for a snug fit for frames in top and bottom of box.
Wow ! Great job n close-ups are very helpful if I dive ahead to make my own super then add the Flow-Frames. I did spend my winter making n assembling three 10 frame frame setup for Spring arrival of three Nuc’s the April 2016. Again … Great job n pix’s…
Hey Gerald, Are you going to have room to maneuver around in there? Do you plan on putting three Nuc’s in there? Or are you going to split the boxes and have three separate colonies? I guess I misunderstand where or what the three nucs will be in.
What your looking at is one full setup that one colony will grow into. At first I will use only the lowest brood box for one of my 3 Nuc’s. As the colony builds I will add another section/box. I have built 3 separate full hive setups this winter in my woodshop. I have a forth started for future explanation as I need more hive bodies. I have four foot behind this hive as well as a four foot escape route to the right Behind my woodshop. I have other locations for the other 3 to 4 more hive. Our local codes allow us 6 total hives on our lot with 6 foot hedge or fence. I’ve planned my apiary carefully over the last 6 months… Thanks for the note. Gerald
P.S. This is a buddies wintering hive n my goal for Spring 2017.
Hi Tony, mods looking good, I’d be a little concerned with the lack of blocks either side of the frames at the top where you take the board out to access the key way. On Flows earlier page they showed the block in place just to keep out the odd escape artists in the hive while extracting. Youll notice all the frames touch each other except the between the outside frames & the hive body.
Thanks for pointing that out. I actually bought me some wood glue for that purpose, but I guess we got caught up in the moment of building and just completely spaced it out. It’s quick fix and will done pretty quickly. Thanks again.
Hope you are still monitoring this!
Trying to convert a 8 frame box and when I sit the flow frames in they sit above the level of the box top at the back. I know I need to use the screws to get them flush with the back wall, but when I do that the whole frame is above the level of the box, but they sit above the ledge at the front!. All the photos I see including yours, have the tops of the frames flush with the top.
I thought they may be meant to slope to the front to encourage the flow?
What am I doing wrong?
The frames should actually sit level in the box. The tilt you describe needs to be the whole hive. Flow achieves this with their full hive kits by building a tilt into the bottom board design. If you have a standard traditional hive, you will need to wedge something under the front of the hive during harvests to achieve a 2.5 to 5 degree backward tilt.
If you could post a photo, it would be easier for us to tell you. Thank you!
Thanks Dawn, I have worked it out, to dum a reason to explain, but many thanks.
Still have a question about the advantages of the three flow frame design vs the 6 frame design. I live outside Canberra with a long winter and have tended to leave frames in the first super for the bees winter feed. Would this suggest going to a 3 design rather than 6. Are there other advantages one over the other?
I don’t think that climate decides whether to go hybrid or not. It is just a question of whether you want comb honey as well as extracted honey.
However, your question raises an important point. Flow have not really done a good job of explaining that there is nothing special about their hive design that requires you to have just one brood box. Here in California, most hobby beekeepers run their hives with 2 brood boxes, because we have very long nectar dearths when we don’t get rain for long periods. It is not the temperature, just the dryness. In the Northern US where the winters are cold and long, many people use as many as 3 brood boxes, even those with Flow hives.
My understanding is that many Australia beekeepers in colder areas use one deep and an ideal or WSP for overwintering. I think you may find that better than a hybrid Flow super.
As far as hybrid vs full Flow goes, I answered that here:
Tony,
