My very first honey harvest with a Flow-Hive. It went very well, 2 1/2 gallons off of a new hive, installed at end of April.
After the harvest (which isn’t supposed to disturb the bees very much) I noticed almost every bee in the hive outside on the front. It’s hot here today and they usually beard but nothing like this…
I know the flow-hive leaks some honey into the brooder box. Just not sure I understand their behavior right now.
I plan on adding another brooder box tomorrow. I sure appreciate any insights thanks!
Oh my goodness, what a photo!!! I have a speculation… If you drained every frame on the same day, the hive may have flooded with honey and the queen may have decided that outside the hive is safer. When that happens, the rest of the hive will tend to cluster with her until the other bees have cleaned up inside. I would suggest in future just draining one or two frames per day.
Good idea, and I hope they fill it quickly. In Utah you will definitely need 2 brood boxes to overwinter your colony. Personally I would have done that before putting the Flow super on the first box, but I wish you and your bees luck with building up enough for winter.
Wow there must be so many bees in your colony- that beard is impenetrable solid bees. Next time crack the frames incrementally to reduce leakage. I imagine next time won’t be that long bybtgecsize of the colony.
Thanks for the comment…I assume they are in cleanup mode…Didn’t know I had so many bees though lol…as soon as they go back inside I’ll replace the super flow with another brooder box. I plan on feeding them and making up for what honey I harvested, to get them through the winter…
It is but I think as Dawn suggested try draining incrementally per frame, you must have had great amount of honey in the frames! Perhaps (if haven’t already) wash down honey spill outside hive, prevent robbing/pests.
. The last time I saw something like that was when I used formic acid as a mite treatment.