Hi Peeps, I currently have a hybrid super on my hive and am trying whether to add my full Flow above or below it.
The hybrid is filling up fast with the outside traditional frames beginning to be capped and I’d like to add room and workload by adding a full Flow. The full Flow was waxed up last season but remained empty through to winter. I’d now like to put it onto my strongest colonys hive. Putting it on top is the easiest and I’m wondering if it would be advantageous to put it beneath the existing hybrid super.
I can see logic in both ways however would like to get others’ experiences and opinions.
Thanks.
Keg
I don’t have a hybrid super, so I have never done this. I will be curious to see what others say. Personally I would probably put the new super under the hybrid, to encourage the bees to use the new super sooner rather than later. Especially as you are getting towards the end of the season. On the other hand, if you are near the end of the season, why not put it on top, as they probably won’t use it again anyhow! 
Tricky bees. Trying to second guess them never works very well, does it? 
Hey Sheggley, I’ll be short with this response, bee want to build comb and work from the top down both in the wild and in a hive. Just going on that info and a gut feeling I would put it on top, not based on hybrid knowledge, just a thought.
Cheers
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Just great, one each way…
@Dawn_SD, although you would think its the end of the season it has actually only just started, finally!
@Peter48, on top would be the easiest, once I can start using smoke again it won’t be such an issue. Makes sense too as when they need more room they build in the roof, or go. But this could also be because they only have the space in the roof.
But then, I was thinking, I know, I know, that they may bring the stores down, closer to the brood if I put the fF below.
Second guessing bees? Yeah but, nah but.
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I think I would put the hybrid on top for air circulation in the hot weather.
One thing I have learnt to know about bees is that you can never really know them, they just play with our minds.
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I plonked it on top this morning and by this afternoon there were quite a few bees in there with their heads down and bums up.
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Quick update, now the hybrid is full and the bees are working on the top box, a full Flow super.
I’d like to get some honey from the hybrid now but I’m thinking once I drain the Fframes in the hybrid they may forget about the top box and restock the drained frames.
An alternative would be to drain the hybrid and once drained, swap supers.
Previous years I have drained the hybrid at least twice before winter but the Fframes had been built out unlike the full Flow.
We still have a month or so of the main flow.
Thoughts?
I don’t think you need any extra thoughts. You have a good plan, and what you have done so far worked very well. Congratulations. 
Just my adviCe… 
if you really want the full flow filled- I would put it underneath. Pretty sure if you drained the hybrid the bees would focus on the lower box at the expense of the upper one- unless there is a big enough flow and population to manage both. We juggle ideal supers with full flows- and we put the one we want worked the most at the bottom- swapping position when we harvest the lower one. It generally works- if the bees don’t have the resources they leave the upper box alone.
Often we will put the ideal on the bottom in spring- the bees quickly fill it- we harvest and swap them over. If it’s a good year the ideal will fill once more on top- if not the bees tend to actually empty it to finish off the flow underneath, making it easy to remove. Then when you remove the ideal late in the season hopefully you get one full flow box before winter.
Thanks mate, we’ll be doing it tomorrow.
I’ll update the results.
Currently the bees seem to be using the top box as a drier.
Hello all,
I am new at this and have a flow super filled but mostly uncapped. So I won’t harvest for a bit. Should I add a med super to the top of the column to take advantage of the collection activities? We are in the middle of Summer here in Colorado and activities are still a-buzz. do bee do bee do, Eric
That is what I would try. Nothing to lose if you do that. 
groovey–thanks! do bee do bee do
Just be aware that if you do add a medium, your bees may do this in it, and you need to have a plan:
Took that one off the hive yesterday, and 7 others like it. Now I need to clean up the centrifuge and get the uncapping fork out!
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Is that foundationless? Could do cut comb! 
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No, it is wired foundation 
I have done cut comb in the past, but it didn’t sell as fast as the jars
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Had to be a mite free colony to do that…with a good queen…and extended nectar flow…a thing of beauty Dawn_SD.
In this part of the world, the mindset was that if you didn’t extract that frame when it was max 20% capped (instead of leaving it to be 100% capped as in the photo), you lost at least 10% of your crop. Of course there are such extenuating circumstances such as colonies developing faster than the beekeeper is aware of…or the beekeeper intentionally allows this to happen because winter feed is required in the brood chamber(s) below…and others.
Checking open cell versus capped cell honey moisture levels…16.5% vs 16% in this particular case.
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Thank you for the compliment @Doug1 
I love your refractometer, and that is why I have one too. Cells not being capped = problematic. But late in the season, the uncapped honey may well be ripe. You just gotta know! A refractometer is very helpful for that
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Noice. And there you were thinking your Flow was going to be your last honey crop of the season.
Glad to hear you got a fair harvest this year after last year’s fizzer.
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