Thanks everyone for feedback. I have replaced the excluder and gave the flow frames a good inspection and mis sign of the queen up there that I could see. Rubbed some of the burr comb on the flow frames to encourage them to get to work up there. The advice regarding smoking from Peter seemed to help as they were a bit calmer this morning.
Regards
Noel
You are up and going. Glad the forum could give some pointers.
I was asked today if I had a spare queen bee. Upon enquiry I found out that queen was to be put into a new flow hive (without bees) and the owners thought thatâs it. Harvest in 6 months.
No, couldnât find a queen for that deadly job.
Seriously, I would think on starting a hive, owners would get a teeny weeny bit of reading done.
I thought initially they were kidding. But it was not a joke at all.
Yes I had a look this afternoon and the flow frames now have ten times as many bees in them so hopefully theyâll start work up there and not roam aimlessly around lol. Thanks again.
Do you think putting wax on the Flow frames did the trick into getting the bees accepting the flow frames Noel?
Glad I could be of help along with the others on the forum, you will find your first year or two a steep learning curve but you will always be learning. Do regular hive inspections and take you time doing them to observe and understand as you go. but if you are in doubt you know where to ask for help.
Cheers
I find bees are able to compress themselves (meaning the entire colony) to occupy a smaller space as they see fit. In other words, if it is a warm, still day they will be up working up in the Flow super but if a cold front sweeps over they can leave the super en masse to presumably all fit into the brood area. They can also look very busy at the hive entrance during orientation flights and gathering nectar on a mild winters day only to be doing nothing there at the start of a cold morning or in very windy conditions. The colony has the same number of bees in it but looks totally different with temperature and weather changes.
I totally agree with you summation Dan, We need to be aware of the time of day and the weather conditions to better understand what we are seeing at the hive. Bees can sometimes do something out of the blue but they are usually following their own pattern and if we take our time we can better follow what is going on.
How are you going down there? We are now into Spring swarm prevention and extracting with a strong flow at the moment.
Regards
Almonds flowering now as well as plums, philotheca, photinia, sweet pittosporum, grevillea australis, tree lucerne all bursting into flower and most other things just around the corner. It is just a short suburban flow down here with none of the endemic gums looking like flowering. We need a few sunny warm days to allow some top foraging conditions.
just noticed all the lovely ornamental Cherry trees around adelaide- and the almonds in full blossom. In the country the canola is just starting up- and quite a few gums are in flower. Last week we had some real spring weather- but this week it is freezing again with the first real rains in months. the bees are out in full force one day- the next day itâs a total lock-down- every bee back to their cell 
with just one guard halfway out the entrance. I am really hoping for a great year this year- and cannot wait for spring. I have high hopes of virgin cut honeycomb in abundance! Touching wood now.
I have two hives in the hills near hundreds (thousands?) of acres of canola- this will be their first year there- both are swarms caught last year. I am very curious to see how strongly they build up off the canola. Apparently it can make them quite aggressive- and the honey isnât great- but is excellent for building up a colony. If it goes well this year I may try and use that site for building up nucs/swarms and splits next year.
Itâs currently way too cold for inspections- but I have a feeling the moment the weather breaks I will have to get into full bore swarm prevention inspection mode.
Funny how some nectar can make bees aggressive and others not. The rain you are getting will be helping with a Spring flow there. Jeff and I are having a dry spell after a very short and mild Winter and both of us are into swarm prevention, supering and harvesting. Heaps of wattle and gums flowering in the bush while the Banksia flow has all but finished.
Regards
Hi Peter, Iâm not supering, all Iâm doing is splitting, splitting & splitting. A bit of harvesting as well. One colony that I split about 3-4 weeks ago was ready to be split again a couple of days ago. Unbelievable, Iâll get back to wiring up more frames. cheers
Hey @JeffH, Sorry, I thought you were Supering too. I have found a supplier of the Tea Tree seeds that Manuka Honey is harvested from at Tamworth and have 300 seeds coming that I will scatter when we get a day or two of rain over at the apiary.
Remember the hive I extracted from that had not been looked at for 4 years and took me almost 2 days to get the 8 frames out with the aid of a shovel to get the lid off. I had a dream run last Saturday and took another 8 frames of fully capped honey off after adding a Super on July1st, with foundation. I will have a split to do on it in a couple of weeks and the guy next door to the lady wants a hive in his place and seems keen to learn. Busy days mate. Hope all is good with you. Regards to you and Wilma.
Many thanks Peter. Same to you & Maureen.
Itâs the fact that the splits are swarming with virgin queens that has me more focused on splitting than ever before.
One colony did a practice swarm in my yard on Monday, that was after I weakened it out a bit. I straight away went in, found the virgin queen, put her with half the bees to take away. While doing that, another split swarmed & landed on a tree over the fence. I caught it, then after lunch, took them both to my bee site. That was the day I used cardboard for a top & bottom on a box.
Iâm pretty sure my bees at home are alright now.
I prepared a split for a customer (a forum member) yesterday to get picked up today. One of his brood frames is over 90% fully sealed brood. The other 3 frames are not looking too bad either. His bees will explode with population in the coming weeks.
If you damage the brood, they will be pissed. Listen for the bees to become suddenly very noisy and active.
You might want to get your hands on a Carniolan queen and replace the one youâve got if theyâre chronically mean. Thatâs a consideration for next year. You can pop the queenâs head off and introduce a new one with a candy plugâŚor you can move the queen into a nuc with a frame of brood, leave that to get clogged up and swarm, then cut the swarm cells off and re-introduce the bees (or just leave them alone until they decide to just go find a bigger home).
Carnies are great for cooler climates, but most of Australia does better with Italians. Some like Carniolans (swarmiolans) though - what is your experience now, @Webclan?
Hi @Dawn_SD. I find my Carnies to work steadily throughout the year. They seem to reduce breeding in a dearth immediately, while the Italians eat a lot of their honey.
In terms of weight gain on a flow, I canât detect any differences between the races. There are differences between all colonies, no matter if Carnie or Italian.
One notable difference is that the Carnies keenly forage earlier in spring, when the Italians seem to find it a bit cool perhaps. Carnies build up earlier.
My mentor, a professional migrational beekeeper, likes to stock his hives with Carnies for the winter flow near the beaches. He says they do better.
I only have 20 hives, equal amounts of Carnies and Italians and 4 mutts. My most defensive is a mutt.
None of my hives swarmed so far, except the Italian beach hives in winter, when the crazy melaleuca flow down there surprised me.
The Italians ready themselves for swarming more than the Carnies. The Carnies seem really settled.
Now with the cooler mornings, they fly out earlier than the Italians and forage longer before sunset. They sure hold their winter weight better in a dearth. Not much around for them here in the mountains.
In terms of temperament, there is a good chance that a mutt queen is stroppier than a well bred one, but then she turns out to be the very best layer.
Thank you very much @Webclan. Interesting observations. 
I just joined this forum with the intent of finding out how to replace a queen as I am getting the same behaviours as you described.
I have been advised to replace my queen. Does that mean I have to kill the present one?
Welcome to the forum Roger, lots of reading and folks happy to give you good advice.
A few things to consider before you go killing the queen which you have to do before you introduce a new queen.
Your a new bee keeper so donât jump to replacing the queen as a colony can be agro for many reasons. Overcrowding as the colony expands means a new super needs to be added. A dearth(lack of nectar available) will trigger them off. Even a quick change in the weather is a possible.
Have a look in the hive, do an inspection of both the super and the brood on a warm day and if your not sure (confident) about what your are seeing them offer a 6 pack of Swan to a local bee keeper to have a look and advise you. Look for a good brood pattern of larvae and capped brood, it takes skill to see eggs.
You also need to consider you local climate and availability of queens. So check your hive first, I would think it is too early for supercedure cells and swarming in Perth, but we have guys here that can better advise your climate and what you might expect.
Cheers
Thanks for the detailed reply.
I have taken all those issues into account but the bees have been
This aggressive for around 4 to 6 months.
I have had at least six stings while working well away from the hive and now wear protective clothing just to work in the garden.
I also need to organise some local help as Iâm 73 and have severe arthritis in my spine and have a fear that I will get a shooting pain while lifting the heavy boxâs and drop one. Not good!!
My plan is to make a deal with someone to help with maintenance of the hive in exchange for a percentage of the honey, but get them to start off with a queen replacement.
I have an original Flowhive with an extra box and now in my second year of beekeeping.
Could I use your site to help find someone?
I really appreciate any help.
Cheers
Roger Patten
Roger, there are guys on the forum that might be able to help or at least send you in the right direction, guys like @skeggley, @busso and others will pick the thread. Worst comes to worse I recon a local bee group will be of help too. You can also open a new thread and that might get good results too.
Iâve hit 71 and a few years ago went for 8 frame boxes to cut down the heavy lifting.
If the colony has been hot for that long I would have given the queen the kiss of death already, but make sure you can get a queen to replace her with, she has reached her âused by dateâ mate. You will need to find her and âbid her farewellâ before you introduce the new queen. There is some that introduce the new queen straight away and some do it 24 hours later, both seem to work though.
There is no joy in knowing you are going to get hammered. I have a motor cycle racing circuit about 100 metres away from my hives, I figure they feel the vibration when there is racing so I take the day off as the bees are noticeable angry about it.
Cheers, Peter