I am looking for general direction on when it would be appropriate to add the Flow Supers on top of my Brood Boxes.
I am located in South Florida, so we are two months into the nectar flow…
I have two Flow Hives…I just installed a NUC in each Broodbox. So each Brood Box has 5 frames from each NUC and four empty frames on either side of the NUC Frames…I have the inner lid on both with the hole covered and have the telescoping lid on top of the Brood Boxes…
Now I am waiting…I know I need to keep an eye on both…
Can anyone give me some guidelines to follow on the appropriate time to add my queen excluder and Flow Supers on top of the Brood Boxes?
Thanks…The learning process has been a lot of fun!
It is not advisable to add your Flow-super until approximately 80% of those frames are drawn out n full of bees. Giving bees excess room they can not use can be hindering n not advised. Have you also check with your local bee clubs n/or beekeepers. Many areas in the Northern Hemisphere use two brood boxes before adding a honey super. I’d check this fact out also. Good luck n enjoy. Gerald
Good point about the second Brood Box…I will check with our local Beekeepers…
Does the fact that I am using Flow Frames in my supers in any way affect my decision on a second Broodbox, or is the fact that they are Flow Frames not relevant at all on this question?
Mike,
The Flow-Super is only a honey super. Here in Washington state I use one deep brood box, one deep super (for overwintering honey) … Then we add medium or shallow honey supers above that. If you using a Flow-super that goes above the second deep box usually. I hope this help you. Enjoy your bees,
You should only have 3 additional empty frames in there, not 4. It is an 8-Frame brood box if you have the Complete Flow Hive kit. Just leave extra space next to the outside frames, but put the rest shoulder to shoulder.
Not relevant at all. The Flow super only affects your harvesting method, and has no impact on the rest of beekeeping in your hives. If your locals use 2 brood boxes, you should too, I agree with Gerald.
It might cause me to round up on what I think I need for winter simply because I have less options for winter. When I run all the same size boxes any box of honey is a box of honey I can harvest or leave for winter. With the Flow frames I can only harvest, so I might want to err on the side of caution as far as what I want to have for them for winter.
Do you think- if you only had the one hive- that you might want to remove the flow super a little earlier than you would a regular super- to ensure that the bees can store a little honey for winter?
We are in Autumn now- it has been quite warm for this time of year and the bees are still foraging. However the weather looks to change to rain and cold any day and we are planning to remove the flow super sometime in the next week and set up the hive for winter. We were advised by a local beek to do this around now. We only have the one brood box. We are going to look in the box to ensure there are at least a few frames of capped honey.
I would harvest, wait for them to clean it up and then pull it off in the autumn, yes. And that would probably give them some time to backfill the brood nest some (hopefully not too much) for winter.
Still unclear. I’m planning to add a medium brood box and a medium super to the stack. If I have a good sized colony they will need a good store of honey for winter, right?
And, am I correct, the honey supers, including FLOW super comes off for winter?
