I need to shake the bees from my flow frames and was wondering if there has been any issues with frames coming apart into separate pieces or do they hang together well. Or is it best to brush off the bees?
Cheers Tim
Hi Tim, I’ve had no issue personally with shaking the bees off the flow frames - no coming apart. If I ever do use the bee brush it seems to upset them and make them angry.
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Cheers, thanks Dan2.
Shake them on the ground in front of the entrance so you dont stand on them working from the sides. Theyll go back in
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Could I ask why you need to shake the bees off?
Hi Dee, I plan to shake the bees off as I plan to swap the bees from one of my hives which has a hybrid box ( 4 standard frames 3 flow frames) on it into a long langstroth hive I have just built. I will be putting those flow frames into my second hive which also has a hybrid box at the moment, in the original full flow box, so all six frames on the one hive, Cheers Tim
Just brush them off Tim, smoke helps to keep them calm however it also means that many of the bees will have the heads deep into the cells taking up honey from the smoke so you’ll just need to be patient with them.
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I have just shaken them off like you do with any other frame. There was no issue with them falling apart. 3 or 4 sharp sudden shakes and 95% of the bees are off.
Show us a pic of your new long hive when you are done 
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Almost there Michele:wink:
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@Timbo2 are you going to leave the Flow frames there once you move them, or is this part of a general flow-sharing plan? As in back & forth.
Thanks Tim. …
Hope it all goes well
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Hi Eva, the plan is to leave it on the hive and we will see how the long hive goes. If it goes well, I will build a second long hive and this time incorporate the flow frames into that one. Cheers Tim
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The first time I shook a frame, it exploded into hundreds of pieces, not impossible to put back together, but certainly a task I would not like to repeat
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really? Was it full of honey and covered in bees? Did the wires snap?
I have shaken many flow frames and never had an issue. I guess if it is a real concern- it could be mitigated by holding the frame firmly at both ends in the middle and squeezing as you shake…
Hi Michele, here is my long hive. Putting the bees from the hive to the left in tomorrow 
(Entrances blocked off at the moment) I made some mistakes a long the way so it sort of evolved a bit as it went along. I didn’t do the best with the windows fitting, hard to cut 32mm straight with a jigsaw I found out. Still thinking about them, worried about rain etc. but pretty happy with over all:slightly_smiling_face: Hopefully the girls will like it. If this goes ok, I think I will incorporate the flow frames in the next one, as they are filling the flows in my hybrid! At last. Cheers Tim
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that looks awesome: love the pneumatic lifters (?) on the roof- very classy! It all looks very solid. Also like the handles for your inner covers- were they expensive? I used very cheap ones for mine but they are a bit small and hard to grip with gloves on…
Hi Michele, yes lifters fitted, the roof ways 18kg😊 The hive is about 50 kg all up empty, plus bees and frames when full, so it is not going anywhere. It has 35mm cool room panels for insulation on the roof and mostly made from 32mm and 19mm NZ pine. One of of my bee buddies Gerard, from the bee club suggested the lifters and I thought why not I’ve gone this far. The handles were from Bunnings, around $20 or so I think for 10 handles and screws. Yes we thought about when you have gloves on. You try and think of everything, but there are still things I would do easier/ better next time😉 Cheers Tim
No it was not full at the time. It was in the hive and the bees had started to tidy and seal the cells, I took it out as someone mentioned to give them a spray of sugar water to encourage the bees to explore, it had about a hundred or so bees on it so I held it on the ends and gave it a quick shake and it flexed in the middle and exploded. The wire is under tension and when it flexed, it just unravelled.
Just a short a follow up, we swapped our bees over today into our long hive. I gently shook the bees off the first flow frame and it felt as solid as a rock, so I gave each frame 4-5 good shakes to remove bees off all 3 frames, no problem at all. Cheers Tim
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