Hi!
I’ve gotten myself a Flow Hive, and am planning to start beekeeping at Hitra, Norway. In my beekeeping course I’ve learned that the honey harvested here is thick, thixotropic.
I found an old thread (2016) here that made it seem like it’s hard to harvest thick honey from the flow frame, but no definitive answer.
I’d like to hear from someone who have had experience with thick honey, and if it can flow out of the frames at all.
I’m a bit concerned about this, and any more knowledge would be appreciated.
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A good question Linda and welcome to the forum. You will find lots of people here that are happy to pass on advice.
Where I am in Australia I have a period where the bees forage on a shrub in the bush we call ‘tea tree’ which the bees make a honey we call ‘Jelly Bush Honey’ which is basically the same as Manuka honey, a New Zealand registered brand name. It is thixotropic. I have heard claims that it can be extracted from a Flow Frame but even in my sub tropical climate it doesn’t happen.
Fortunately the Jelly Bush Honey has a short season and as soon as it begins I remove the Flow Super and replace it with a Langstroth super, when the frames are capped the honey won’t spin out in my electric extractor so I scrape the comb off the foundation and do a ‘crush and strain’ to recover the honey.
There is a difference between thick honey and honey that is thixotropic so if the honey is just thick then you might have no issues draining a Flow Frame in a period of warmer weather.
Cheers