I set up my 2 hives, and didn’t think about it until after the bees were established… My view window on the flowhive is between the hives. 
Will it mess the bees up if I turn the hive around to face a different direction?
And I’m also confused about whether I need a 2nd brood super. I’m in southeast Nebraska. My flowhive brood super is almost full with brood, capped and uncapped and they have put some honey at the top of one of the frames. They just started investigating the flowhive which I probably put on a little too early.
I did notice something interesting. They started out building comb that is the traditional size. Midway through, they started building comb that matches the size of the flowhive frames…size and angle of the plastic comb. It’s fascinating.
Anyway, should I add a 2nd brood super? And what would happen if I turn the hive around?
Anne Dovel
Well, from every think I have read and read on here, your hive interest should be facing south or Close. If you turn around we’ll not be facing south?
As for the second brood box, being in Nebraska I would assume it’s close to the Dallas climate and I would think to would be necessary to get you through the winter. But I will certainly ask your local beekeeper
Our climate is colder in winter than Dallas, I believe. I will ask the local beekeepers. Thanks.
yes, colder. That in it self I would have 2 brood boxes
As Marty has suggested, facing south would be the best for the bees so they get that early morning sun. Which direction are they facing at the,moment? If turning a hive around to face another direction, then move only 30 degrees (or less) at a time.
Another option is to swap your hives, though this may be a little more tricky. It will mean gradually moving one of the hives away 3ft at a time, after a few days move the Flow hive over to where the other hive was and then gradually move the other hive back to the new position. It may take 1 - 2 weeks to get it right.
If you do it all in one go, very likely, yes. I would suggest rotating by approximately 30 degrees per day, if you decide to do this, but you have other options…
I think you should take the Flow super off and put on at least one more box. There is even an argument for having 3 brood boxes in your climate, when you have 8-frame Langstroths. I bet most of your local beekeepers will be using double brood, but they will use 10-frames, so they have 25% more space than you do with two 8-Frames. Good overwintering success depends partly on ensuring that the bees start the winter with plenty of supplies. Having 2 or 3 brood boxes helps a lot with this.
While your Flow super is off, if you haven’t glued it, you could dismantle it. Then you can reassemble with the window on the otters side. You will have to file out a new recess for the metal strip to sit flush below the rear window, but otherwise it should work just fine. 
Not quite sure what you are meaning here, but if you mean that the comb is deeper than the frames, That could cause problems. The reason is that deeper cells are fine for drone brood, but not for workers. You need to make sure that your 8 brood frames are firmly “shoulder to shoulder” in the middle of the box with no gaps when viewed from above. It doesn’t matter if there is a gap between the outer frames and the wall, but in the middle, the frames should all touch.
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