Due to weather and time I am wondering if what I see in the rear window is an indication of what the whole frame is like
It would be handy to have an observation window in the front too.
My concern is if they started for instance in the middle of the frame to the rear and the front of the frame is only partially filled.
I am only a newbee too, but I had the same question not long ago… and I reckon the best thing to do is inspect the super frames, its the only way to know for sure how far the bees have capped honey 
Thats how mine looked the day before I harvested.
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Yes that is what I expected really, but as it raining thankfully it has been very dry
I am reluctant to open it up
I guess I can always wait I also have a regular full super on top of the flow hive
I will most likely swap these around now that the flow has been used and have the flow on top.
1 super for the bees over winter and 1 for me 
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It’s more than likely those frames are ready to harvest. The rear window can be very misleading - at times there can be virtually no honey there at all and a frame that is 98% capped and more than ready to harvest. Other times (especially spring) the rear window looks good but the central frames are half empty with a large unfilled arc at the bottom. If i was you I’d be very keen to look at a few of those frames and get to harvesting if they are ready. That honey is looking real good. I don’t think I’d wait…
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Open the hive and have a look.
You cant judge it by looking at the windows. its a nice to see thing but not a clear indication.
looks good right?
but then
you have to inspect. having a flow doesnt stop the fact you need to inspect like a langstroth.
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Love, love, love that post! Shows it all. Never harvest without inspecting.
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Yeah, take note of the above post. That’s what we get too. All windows full but on inspection it’s mostly arcs of honey with the centre filled last and not ready.
Cheers
Ron
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I harvested and got over 2 litres
The bees were trying to fix it and fill it again before it had finished
I will be swapping the other super and the flow around in the next few days so the flow is on top and the honey I intend to leave behind is nearer the brood box
Thanks for the suggestions.
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Helpful discussion! So next follow-on question is how small does the uncapped ‘arc’ have to be before you can harvest?
We harvested this frame yesterday after inspection. (hopefully the first photo if the uploads are in order).
But we held off on 2 frames which had 100% full rear windows but had reasonably large uncapped arcs in the middle. (2nd photo)
I’ve read that the honey in the arcs maybe <18% water content and ‘good to go’ but just not capped by the bees
Hiya Nanno, since these arcs when present are left open for brood laying, I would be surprised to hear of much nectar storage in there. The cells in yours looked dry to me but wouldn’t be sure from just a pic. Anyway, you can plan to use separate containers to use for front, middle and back end of the affected frames just in case you do have some watery honey in there…
I would be more worried about a honey leak into the hive, than the water content. If you do go ahead, I would open the frame in about 20% sections and check for leaks for 10 minutes before moving on to the next section. You tell that there is a big leak if honey is dripping out of the slider, or bees start bearding at the entrance of the hive. 
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One trick I picked up from this forum is to give the frame a gentle shake, face down. Unripe honey will fall down, sometimes like rain. Riper honey will stay put. I do this on frames similar to your photos. I only take the frames (traditional) to harvest if no honey falls down.
Another trick I started doing in recent years is only taking honey frames during the early morning. By doing that, it’s less likely I’ll have any real fresh unripe honey in the uncapped cells because the honey in the uncapped cells has been de-watered at least overnight.
Therefore I’d suggest checking the frames one day to decide which frames you want to harvest, then harvest them early morning the following day.
cheers
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Good idea. We have started cracking our frames in stages now to reduce the amount of honey that spills down to the bottom from overflow. Thx Eva
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Thx Jeff, we sometimes stage our inspection/harvest over 2 days to limit the disturbance on the bees plus I find morning inspections easier when many bees are out foraging and numbers are down - so that’d be an easy to adapt our current practices to. Many thx
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