Hi, I used my Super Lifter today and it was great! But I also installed the brass latches and had some trouble with the roof.
I’m in Canberra, and beekeepers here seem to use two brood boxes and remove the super for our cold winters. The brass latches are designed to be placed between the top-most and second boxes and are used to securely hold these two boxes together when they’re tilted with the Super Lifter.
If I have the two brood boxes + the super, the latches are fine. My issue is that once the super is removed overwinter, the roof moves down one box. When only the brood boxes are used without a super installed, the roof can’t be placed directly on top of the brood box without the latches interfering with the roof. So, I’ve had to remove the latches along with the super to replace the roof.
One solution might be to cut the roof to fit around the latches. That also means the brass roof stays will no longer be there, so perhaps something will be needed for the latches to attach to the roof in their place.
I would suggest to not use the latches. The only thing that needs tying down is the roof, on account that the bees don’t propolize it down because of the crown board sitting under it. The crown board gets propolized, the same as the boxes.
I never tie anything down. I don’t use crown boards, only hive mats that don’t sit on the edges of the boxes, which allows the bees to propolize the roof to the supers.
You do break the seal, however I’ve found that it reseals once you replace the boxes. In nearly 38 years I’ve never had severe wind blow roofs off, or separate boxes.
I had a similar problem so I sourced some longer bars (loop one end, threaded the other) from Bunnies so I could move the latches down below possible roof height and still reach.
I did raise this problem with the Flow people via email and they got back to me promptly. So they are aware but don’t see it as a major worry yet. Not many have complained.