Why aren't my bees filling the Flow™ Frames? FAQ's

Flow Hive
1

I would like to confirm these are my findings also.
(From FAQ’s)

  1. Lots of bees on the Flow™ Frames.
    This is the main factor. If there are not many bees when you look in the rear window and the side window, it will probably take some time for the bees to build up and start working on the Flow™ Frames.

2 A good nectar flow.
Honey won’t be stored in your hive, regardless of the number of bees, unless there are enough flowers around with plenty of nectar.

In late Spring I had Flow Frames jam packed with bees. With two brood box’s up to speed there were wall to wall bees in the frames. However there was no honey going in. Hive numbers were stable as far as I could tell with just enough blossom about to keep the status quo.
Then 4 or 5 days ago the main forest flowering trees began to bloom.
Almost instantly I saw honey going in the frames. The rate honey is going at present I would not be surprised if the Flow frames were full and capped within two weeks.

busso

7 Likes
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Well done Busso, that is great news. I did some robbing yesterday & it was the first time in over 2 months that the bees weren’t trying to get to the honey in the frames before I got them onto the truck. So it’s looking good here also. There was a smell of leptospermum in some of the honey but no concentration of it to make it set like jelly. About 1 sq.inch. Maybe next time.

3

Hi Jeff,
When do your Leptospermums flower. Ours, about 2 dozen huge plants, flower very profusely in late Winter-early Spring so I am pretty happy that at that time I don’t have a super on. Same with the Turpentines, as I have found they finish before I put a super on, but they were a great builder giving my broods big numbers by late Spring.

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Hi Busso, there must be lots of different species. This time last year I got about 30 kilos of it out of 2 robbings. I’m sure one was about now & the 2nd one must have been a bit later, probably mid Feb. I was getting more honey then. There must be different species north of us that flower in around Oct. I have no idea what species my honey came from, except that after testing by the university, it achieved high & low readings in all the right areas.