I have a complete flow hive coming this month or next and I cannot afford more flow products so need to get some additional supers to go with my flow hive. I am brand-new to bees and don’t have a clue as to what I need to order thank you for any help you can give me.
You can use any standard Langstroth hive boxes with your Flow Hive. With the complete flow you will have the two supers and top and bottom. You will prolly, at the least want one more super, to use as a brood box, or another honey super.
Parts like this can be had very reasonably. If you check with bee groups in your area you might be able to score used equipment. If you want to order parts that are from the same builder and of the same cedar you can buy from Beethinking in Oregon.
I’m building 6 frame, full depth supers and they are costing me just a few dollars each. I’m using second hand Australian cypress for the ends and large 3mm glass windows in one side of two of the supers. Perspex would probably be a better choice but I already have the glass on hand. The windows will lie almost flush on the inside and the plan is to fit close fitting ply shutters on the outside.
My three flow frames are due for delivery this month but my bee colonies won’t be ready for honey supers until January.
Thank you @Shannon_Pitt for asking the question and @sara for the answer. I was trying to figure out how to go about matching the flow hive with an extra super. Beethinking looks like the perfect site and has very informative videos for us newbies.
Be warned - the Flow Hives use an 8 Frame Langstroth size. Additional supers / brood boxes / crown boards / queen excluders etc need to be the same size. In the Uk the default seems to be the 10 frame size so I ended up buying a few bits which were too big before I realised.
@Mark_Bell if you have not assembled or painted you could always swap back - I automatically ordered Supers forgetting that I really wanted deep 8 Frame and I’m swapping them back at Tradex and paying the difference with no postage costs - Just a thought btw you could join us on facebook “Flow Hive UK” if you wished
I thought that but figured I might as well just keep hold of them. You never know when I might need them in future and It’s a long way to swap them back (from Thornes - I’m in Surrey).
I’m on the UK Facebook page already. Following with interest and looking forward to getting my nuc delivered and populating the new hive.
Good tactic. You will need another colony.
Question about that!
First and foremost, my area is not flowering anymore so the conversation beneath does not pertain in any way to the flow supers. I’m feeding supplemental sugar syrup now, and treating for mites.
So!
I recently lost the nicely producing colony that lived in one of my two flow hives, in a double deep.
Two days ago howecer, I had the good fortune of being able to purchase a new healthy colony from a local beekeeper, and she sold the colony to me in a 10 frame deep brood box which I taped up and brought home in my car. Wearing my suit i should add!
My predicament is that, due to the excessive width of the deep 10-frame box, as compared to the width of my deep Flow boxes, I can’t stack them! The new box and old ones don’t “fit” each other.
I’m debating whether I should either create a makeshift narrow extra top strip to cap the would-be exposed opening created between the 10-framer and the Flow box on top (stretching across, from front to back), or if I should simply move all the new frames from the 10-framer into two of my deep Flow boxes, adding an interior feeder and top the whole creation off with a few more drawn frames and store the 10-framer box?
If I’m allow to mess with the new colony (again), I think option two sounds better.
Happy for feedback!
I think you could do either method. I know that Michael Bush has “adapted” 10 frame boxes to fit an 8 frame on top, simply by putting a strip of 1" by 2" wood along one edge.
If the aesthetics of that modification bother you (it would bother me ), then you could transfer over 8 frames to a matching brood box. I would try to pick 2 frames which only have honey and/or pollen in them, and put those into the freezer to use for feeding them later in the season. Wrap in plastic first to avoid getting condensation on them when they thaw. If you freeze them, the honey is less likely to crystallize, and you will kill any wax moth and SHB eggs or larvae which may be lurking in there.
you can either use the 10 box with a strip of wood- or you could remove two frames of brood and use them to start another colony- make a split. Or what Dawn said.