This is my first year. I was wondering if it is too late for central Indiana to add my flow supers. I have 2 deep brood boxes I would say 90+% drawn. Lots of capped honey in the top box and queen doing a fantastic job laying eggs still. I bought this Nuc and have had it since the end of May. Do I add the flows and see if they will do some filling? If they don’t I suppose I just remove them for winter? Thanks in advance.
Too late imo. Now’s the time to deal with the mites so the bees that raise your winter bees are healthy.
It probably wouldn’t hurt to add them, but I really doubt that they would do anything with them this late in the season. The only risks are that as the fall approaches, they tend to fill gaps (including the Flow mechanism) with propolis rather than wax. If they do use wax, they may burn up some needed winter stores to do it, which would be a shame. This map lets you click on hive weights near you. There aren’t any in your state, but just south of the state line, this hive has shown a steady decline in weight since the beginning of July. That suggests that the nectar flow is largely over for the main part of the season:
http://hivescales.beeinformed.org/demo_hives/184
I agree with Ed (@Anon), get your mites under control, and look forward to extracting honey from the Flow frames next year.
General rule would apply here. Don’t rob a first year hive unless they are bursting and a flow is on. From your location I would be getting them set up for winter rather than thinking of robbing them.
Cheers
Rob.
I decided after they responses here to leave them off. They are doing so well. I looked pretty hard for mites tonight and didn’t see them. Is it even possible I don’t have any or yet? They have most the top all capped honey. Saw the queen tonight. They seem very happy and doing really well from my limited perspective
Unless you did a sugar roll or alcohol wash, I wouldn’t trust your eyes. Seeing them on bees is often an imminent sign of colony demise, in other words, not seeing them doesn’t mean you don’t need to treat.
The majority of Earth has mites: They are rarely seen with the naked eye and if they are, it’s often too late.