The girls are starting to put a bit of nectar into the Flow frames and man, have they come a long way in 7 weeks!
Hard to believe they started out as a 3-frame nuc on March 19th. (it’s now May 11th)
Awesome to see them bearding and washboarding out on the hive this evening.
After your last video where you rolled melted wax onto the flow frames I’ve been looking forward to see how it went. Looks like it worked well. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome @Mattress
That is a lovely sight @Semaphore.
BTW- we didn’t put anything on the frames and the bees took to them quickly- though I am sure rolling on the wax as you did is a good idea to get them started. It’s like rolling out the welcome mat. BTW- this photo was taken approximately 4 months after we first installed the Nuc in the hive. We gave the bees around 2 months before we put the super on- so they did all that work in less than 2 months. Can’t wait until next year to see how the hive emerges from winter- fingers crossed- it will explode into spring next year. Tomorrow we will make one last inspection before wintering the hive- we will probably extract some more frames- we have been very lucky with a mild and warm autumn here in Australia.
Nice video Bobby. Taking my flow super with me for my inspection tomorrow. Hope 2nd brood box is 80% full and I’ll be able to put it on. Amazing to watch them exploding in population.
Here are some pictures of nectar being stored in the outer Flow frame!
I am so pleased
If this is happening on the outer frame, I wonder what’s going on in the middle.
Sorry for the low quality - used my phone. I’ll try to get some macro focus pics with my big boy camera later.
nice one! brings back happy memories.
i cant wait for it to be spring again here in Australia!
Nice one Bobby. So cool to see this all coming together.
My replacement frames are apparently arriving today, but I’m going to have to be patient because spring is a long way off in nz!
Thanks for sharing. Paul
ps. what are all the bees doing on the outside of the hive? Is is really hot?
Thanks @Sting, both the exponential growth, and work the bees do are mind blowing.
It was pretty warm the late afternoon / early evening I shot the video. The spot my hives are in has a privet hedgerow directly on the east/southeast side so they hives don’t get hit with direct sunlight until 1 PM or so. After that it’s full sun until 6 or 7.
Oddly, the 10-frame hive next door was not exhibiting the same behavior. That hive likely has the same volume of bees, but it definitely has 20% more space. 10 frames vs 8 frames per box.
Maybe it is easier to regulate the temperature in that other hive right now.
Bobby, that is my concern as well…seems a really thriving colony gets really warm…mine are bearding a lot on the front and under the screen board and our temps are in the low 80’s and mid 60’s at night…
Another thing, we had a 5 frame Nuc that decided to start the swarm process just a week into being transferred to my 8 frame box…now it’s possible this mindset happened BEFORE I received and installed them but I.ended up with 2 colonies within 3 weeks…not a bad deal; just unexpected. I have wondered if that would have happened if I had a 10 frame modified box.
My colony is expanding quite quickly now. They did start to congregate on the landing platform and a few above. It was a very sunny and warm day so I assumed they were getting a bit too warm. So I slid my inspection board out half way. Short time later everything was back to normal. Not saying it will work but that is what happened with mine. Great vids and pics Bobby. I have only just put my Flow Frames in, nothing added to my frames but I did put a rapid feeder in the roof so they will have to crawl over the frames to get to it. Can’t wait to see how things go. Lucky we have the inspection windows so we can peep without disturbing them. Oh BTW we are in Cornwall UK with Cornish Black Bees.
I’ve never been clear on whether to leave the corflute slid in place, remove altogether and when or what slot to have it in.
I’ve read more than once that queens have something of an aversion to light and may not lay a whole lot in a bottom brood chamber that has a SBB that does not have something solid undrneath it.
Would love some advice in this regard.
I have waxed lyrical on this many times, Bobby…
http://forum.honeyflow.com/t/hive-bases-configurations/6981/4?u=dawn_sd
I started a poll on the Flow Hive UK site.
So far we are at
4 in the bottom slot.
3 on the upper slot.
1 with no board unless doing an inspection or draining of honey.
I personally leave mine mostly in the bottom slot.
Did some work this week at a commercial apiary all their bottom inspection boards were left in place.