I have a feeling that in Florida with year round warmth they’ll grow fairly quickly for me. But it seems like one deep brood, one standard super, and one Flow super should be a good amount of space.
Then maybe I’ll put the controversial queen excluder between the two supers just to make sure the Flows stay but the other super is open just in case.
@candymanjl, have you been in contact with established beekeepers in your area? If not, then I highly recommend it. This is more of an international group and when it comes to environment specific questions about basic hive needs then your local contacts would be an advantage.
Hi Rich, by putting the excluder between the two supers (assuming the Flow super is the upper most) then the first super will become a second brood box and the queen will lay in this box. To ensure you are running a single brood + two supers (Normal + Flow) the excluder will need to go directly above the brood box. Unless you are planning on having a double brood box… hope that makes sense.
Thanks for all the help guys!
Yes, I have been in touch with a local guy through a friend. Just asking on here as well 
Rodderick that does make sense, thanks!
A point that should be noted is that lack of space is only one of the reasons that bees swarm. Adding an extra brood box is too simplistic an answer to a normal reproductive phenomenon.
Budding keepers of bees should be armed with extra kit …the same number of boxes that are in use…so that artificial swarm procedures can be achieved
Thank you all very much this is a really informative strand to a newbee
Back to the earlier question of “What if the bees out grow the flow hive” and most of the answers were that the bees will swarm and you can add supers and brood boxes… but… here is my question. What if I only want 1 hive!? Is it wrong to only want one? Is it ok to let the bees swarm and give them away? Would I let them fend for themselves? I too am just getting my feet wet in beekeeping, I did purchase a full traditional hive and plan to start with this and learn from a traditional hive before getting the FLOW Hive. Thank you!
Having two colonies has lots of advantages. You have a “spare” queen; you have spare brood.
You can use one hive to get the other out of trouble.
Having said that if you really don’t want two then you AS when indicated, wait for your new queen to start laying worker brood, then choose which one you want to keep. Kill the other or give her away and unite the colonies. Done in a timely fashion at a flow you will have a strong colony for a good harvest.
BUT it all depends on the bees 
How much room they need depends on your climate. Typically in the far north of the US they use two ten frame deeps for the permanent brood nest/overwintering. The supers (in this case the Flow frame box) would go on top of that. In the deep south they may only have one ten frame deep for the brood nest. You have to adjust. What you don’t want to do is let them run out of room so add boxes as necessary. You should always have some spare boxes on hand.
Very interesting points Michael but that would be another cost issue if people started to expand the hives and need to pay the full price for the additional population of bees. What would be the cost if people wanted to add 2-3 more Flow Hives after the first purchase?
I’m asking because some people like myself could possibly build some of the structures/units to match what the company has sold to me. Newbee here but have some knowledge with Bee keeping and plenty of woodworking expertise.
I guess you would need to go out and spend even more money by getting another Brood box/Super plus the Excluder so the Queen stays in the lower Box. You will need another Cedar Premium Box for the extra bees. Did I read that correctly?
Where I am I’d need 2 deep brood boxes and 2 supers; $1300+ .
If you’re only after a couple of jars of honey but like the novelty of the Flow frames then just get a 1 Flow super w/frames and extra conventional boxes that you can add if needed.
That would bring an additional cost for harvesting the honey people/keepers would then need the Conventional tools for retrieving the Honey. I really hope the Owners find a cost effective way of making this invention/technology unique in the industry. I guess it’s just a dream that something so creative could heal a suffering almost a point of no return problem where everyone could lend a hand and resolve the unthinkable problem of pollination/pesticides/devastation/etc and solve a true world crisis.Perhaps erase the problem all together we can only hope that one day this would solve one serious issue on generating more food and more bee’s. My 2 cents worth on this issue.
Ps.
I would love to have 3 stacks of 5 hives set up in my back yard but I would need to craft the boxes with my own design so I will wait for the Flow Hive Frames and build around them.
It certainly makes sense to buy some Langstroth boxes and modify them for the Flow frames. I can buy precut boxes for less than I can buy the lumber to build them. But if you have a local sawmill and can cut out the middle man, sometimes you can get the price down.
Isn’t the Lang brood big enough to overwinter without a super, i.e. enough room for stores in the brood box?
Wouldn’t it be better to fill the whole super with flow frames then you can take the whole box away?
One ten frame deep Langstroth box is not big enough to winter in my climate. Nor big enough for brood comb spring. It is probably enough in Georgia, USA, but not Nebraska.
It probably won’t be a good thing to discover that your only honey super is fully capped with honey. The bees are still going to be bringing in nectar and will need to store it somewhere; that place will be the brood nest area. Once they start backfilling the brood nest, the swarming urge gets kicked into high gear. Or if it takes a couple hours to drain the frames where will the bees that are heavy with nectar put their loads? Do the bees stop working? That’s why I think it is good to have another Flow box or some conventional frames to give the bees.
I never needed an extractor or all the conventional harvesting tools until I got into the 30-40 hive counts. The capping’s come off with a bread knife, will drain by itself into a Tupperware container and then put the frames right back on the hive. This way all those beautiful wax capping’s get to be harvested for lip balms, lotions, etc. If you aren’t interested in wax and you’ve got the money get an extra Flow box.
I always thought the bees need more room for nectar storage. For instance, if you desire 2 supers of honey, give the bees 3 supers to store all the nectar then they will need to evaporate the moisture out of it.
Don’t forget to keep a few nuc boxes ready for capturing swarms. You can sell a swarm and buy a Flow frame or 2.