Hello fellow Flow users, general question here about removing honey supers before treating for Varroa mites. I guess my two hives struggled this year, as the honey supers are nowhere near full with hardly any capped honey at all. Unfortunately I’d like to treat for Varroa with a heavy-duty miticide (Apivar), which requires the removal of the supers. What should I do with the honey supers during the 6-week treatment period? I can leave the honey supers along side the hives on my ant proof stand and allow all the bees to openly forage and rob the honey from the boxes – or – I have a walk-in refrigerator where I could store the honey supers for 6 weeks in a chilled environment in a chemical free plastic garbage bag? What are other people doing in this community? My hives are located in a botanic garden in southern CA, so there are always flowers in bloom so I’d love to get the supers back on as soon as the 6-week treatment period has come to an end. Thank you!
Hi and welcome to the Flow forum. I am down the coast from you in San Diego, but I know Ojai and love the wines from that region. Like you, we have had a horrendous season this year, and have been feeding for much of the last 6 months.
Personally, I would harvest them (off the hives if the frames are not mostly capped, to prevent leaks into the brood nest) and then leave them off the hives until next year. I know you are in a botanic garden, but
- Are the flowers there producing nectar? Even in irrigated suburban San Diego, we have lots of flowers, but very little nectar. Our annual nectar flow is over by the beginning of July.
- Are the flowers producing nectar that honey bees can use? Many flowers are not suitable for honey bees, and are pollinated by other insects.
Don’t do that, please. You may encourage feral bees to come and rob your hives too! That would be terrible. You could harvest the honey as I suggested above and feed it back to your bees using an in-hive feeder (inverted mason jar, pail feed etc).
If there is honey in the frames, it may crystallize if refrigerated (it won’t in a freezer though). Also, if the frames are tilted and the honey is not capped, it will leak out. Believe me, I have done it. It even leaks from frozen frames, so store them upright.
My supers come off in July, and I start Oxalic Acid vapor treatments soon after that. If the mite counts are not down by September, I put Apivar strips into the hive. I am considering Randy Oliver’s oxalic acid sponge method, but this is not yet fully approved in California. Depends on whether you need to worry about such things. If you don’t have to worry about approvals, you could even leave your supers on with oxalic acid sponges… 
One other thing. If you leave your supers on, and there is not much of a nectar flow, expect huge amounts of propolis. That can jam up the opening mechanism big time, making the next harvest very difficult, or even impossible. That is why my supers come off. When the nectar flow stops, the propolis starts! 
Hi Dawn, thank you for your very thoughtful response! I will follow your suggestions this weekend and get my mite treatment underway… Thank you!
Hi there, I got my first Flowhive this year and need advice on treating varroa please.
I’m in the UK and we have problems with the varroa mite. Normally, before I got my Flowhive, I’d medicate for this pre-winter and again in early spring. My worry is I was expecting to leave the Flowhive super on to feed the bees, but the treatments taint the honey for humans.
I understand I normally shouldn’t be cleaning your frames after the winter, but I guess I’ve no option?
Or should I simply replace all the Flowhive frames with Langstroth and feed sugar water/have a robbing station to get them filled up? I’m a bit late for that but maybe still possible… it will be 18 to 16 degrees over the next few days.
I was hoping for some recommendation for how beekeepers in varroa areas should medicate their Flowhive pre/post winter? And if there’s a particular varroa treatment you recommend?
Many thanks for your help,
Ian
Hello and welcome to the Flow forum!
Some of your questions are address in this very recent thread:
As far as this issue goes:
You should with a Flow hive too. If you must treat with the super on, formic acid strips and Hopguard can both be used with a super in place. However, I would take the Flow super off for winter, and for treating.
Bees will put propolis all over the Flow frames if you do that, potentially jamming the opening mechanism for next year. Also, you will need to remove the queen excluder, to allow the cluster access to the super. That means that the queen could lay in the super - not desirable at all.
Most people in the UK overwinter on double brood, or brood and a half. You should do the same with a Flow hive. Bit late for this year, but with attention to feeding etc, you should be able to get them through the cold season.
If you mean an in-hive feeder, then yes, you could do that. They probably won’t take much in a couple of days though. Please don’t use an external feeder at this time of year - it may encourage a robbing frenzy from other hives. I would also look at some candy/fondant method, or even just solid white granulated sugar.
Hi there Dawn,
Your feedback has been very helpful. Paras in the UK has also been great.
I’m now good to go into my first winter with Flowhive.
Many thanks
Ian
Happy to help, thank you for asking here - your questions may help others. Paras is a very good resource, as is @HappyHibee, who runs several Flow hives in various UK locations.
