Hi Just thinking about adding a 3rd large to an 8-frame set up that currently has 2 larges and a super. would you add the new box above the super of if the super is full with mostly honey, would put the 3rd large below the super
Thanks
next question if my hive is angled slightly forward and I need harvest from the flow hive what is the best way to get the angle of the hive to tilt back?
My idea would be to add shims between the flow box and the lower box but I realize that would leave a gap in front. between the boxes. Would this ok for a few hours? Adjusting the entire hive could prove difficult given the weight and we would rather not take the flow hive off full of bees to harvest it elsewhere.
any thoughts?
thanks as always
I want to make sure the box gets filled before the super, so I would put it below. If the super is a Flow super and is full of honey, I would just harvest it first so I donāt have to lift it while itās full.
It depends on many things. But likely you can just prop up the flow super with a board at the opposite end from the spouts.
Hi the super is a conventional one and it is full currently the large would be to give them more room.
OK I opened up 3 of my frames and disaster one of them leaved all the way down my hive by the time I saw it it was too late. I took off the flow hive to limit damage and have the top open as the entrance is covered in honey and stuck bees WTF? what did i do wrong why is the thing leaking? The 3 i harvested were capped as far as I could see 3 center frames. very upset what can i do to try to clean up these bees all gooped up in front
Hard to tell without photos or video. The possibilities include:
- Loose tension wires on the frame - if the frame flexed as you were opening it, that would crack the wax and let the honey leak.
- Misaligned cells - some people forgot to check that the cells were all in the closed position. Bees then have trouble sealing the open cells properly, resulting in leakage.
- Too rapid flow - some people have had leaks when they opened the whole frame at once. They now do it in sections of about 25% at a time, letting each section run for 5 minutes before opening more.
Those are the 3 most likely that I can think of, but I am sure that others will think of more possibilities.
It is probably best to let the bees clean themselves up. They are usually pretty good at doing that. Comb can collapse and leak in feral hives too, so the bees have evolved a way of dealing with it.
thanks this should not be this confusing. If leaking is an issue the instructions should state it so. All combs were in the correct position and capped. I can guess #1 and certainly I had no idea about #3 so I am guessing that is what our error was. Something simple like putting that in the booklet that came with the flow hive would have been nice.
I had a couple more thoughts. If your hive isnāt tilted backwards by 2.5 to 5 degrees, that can contribute to leakage too. The other issue to remember is pushing the drainage tube in the correct way up - the lip on the end of the tube must be at the bottom to seal off leakage into the lower channel.
The booklet is a work in progress - I think a lot of these issues came up when large numbers of people started using the frames. I am sure that they will put these things into future editions. In the meantime, there is a checklist for harvesting on the web site, which is up to date and quite helpful:
http://www.honeyflow.com/resources/harvesting-checklist/p/197
Hope your bees recover quickly from their sticky inundation!
we shimmed the super so it was angled back before we started. I am wondering if there any reason I cannot just take the super off, put it on a table with a tray underneath it and harvest it that way so if this happens again there is no such disaster? This is what I did too limit the damage of the leaking - it seemed to work great Thanks for the link I will look at it now.
yes I had the tabs of the tubes at the bottom (flow icon at the top) no leaking from there
Absolutely you could do that. It will be pretty heavy though - maybe over 50lb. If you decide to do it that way, you may want to investigate getting a bee escape and a second inner cover, so that you can get the bees off the frames before you harvest (the same way traditional frame honey can be harvested).
thanks weight is not an issue and in the end it is what i ended up doing anyway once we saw the leak I just shut the flows down, picked it up and continued, Hive looked better this evening they have cleaned up some and dead and covered have been pushed aside
Your bees are very lucky then! We inspected our hives today, and one of the brood boxes had frames which must have weighed 6 to 7 pounds each. Unfortunately, it was an upper brood box, so we then had to co-ordinate a careful, gentle, lifting dance to get the box out of the way of the lower box. It was at least 50 pounds, and it was hot here today. Fortunately the bees were tolerant and gentle, but it made me appreciate my husband even more - I would have to have done it differently if he wasnāt there, like splitting the frames into an empty box, etc.
Anyway, I am glad that your hive looks peaceful and better this evening. Sorry for your losses, but you and everyone who reads this thread will have the opportunity to learn from it. So it wasnāt in vain or a wasted effort. Enjoy the rest of the weekend! 
three frames collected not counting the epic spillage
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Hi Rodderick, why do the cells need to be capped before harvesting? Thanks. Steven in Melbourne, Australia.
They donāt necessarily, but honey needs to have less than 18.5% water in order to be shelf stable and labeled as āhoneyā. If it has more water than this, it can ferment over weeks to months, as any mead maker can tell you. The cappings are just an easy way to be fairly sure that the honey has been properly dried and ripened by the bees.
If you extract frames which are 90% capped, your honey will very likely be less than 18% water, because bees somehow know when it reaches this point, and they almost never cap āunripeā honey.
The gold standard is to test a drop of honey in a refractometer (under $40 from eBay or Amazon), which you can even get from dipping a cocktail stick into an uncapped cell. If it is less than 18.5% water, you should be fine.
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If the frame is not capped it is far more prone to leakage into the lower boxes of the hive
As Dawn says, unripe honey will ferment and is next to useless unless you plan to make alcohol out of it. Otherwise it will keep for decades and even centuries.
Regarding selling honey to friends. Iām giving away single jars as gifts (particularly at Christmas) but I expect an empty jam jar in return. At the moment, Iām happy to replace when they have finished a jar and no-one has taken liberties.
If any of my friends or neighbours want a large quantity of honey (one wanted about 3kg), I sell it at mates rates (A$7.50/kg). If I was low on supplies, I wouldnāt have a problem saying not at the moment.
When I had a fair bit of excess honey last year I sold a few jars at my kids homeschooling group for A$15/kg. This compares to cheap honey in the supermarket at A$10/kg and pricey honey at a local specialty honey shop of A$30/kg.
If I had all the food certificates and branded my jars at a local store or markets Iād be asking A$30/kg.