I’m a first year beekeeper in the Pacific Northwest. My Flow hive is going great. I added a second brood box to help my hive gain strength. I only tapped two Flow frames so far to make sure they have enough honey to survive our long wet winters. But with two brood boxes, I’m wondering if it might be better to pull the Flow super off for the winter to keep the hive more compact.
Thoughts?
Hi there and welcome to the Flow forum.
I definitely would, to avoid getting the Flow mechanism jammed with propolis over the cool season. That would make harvesting very difficult next year. 
Yes. Always take supers off in winter. ESPECIALLY the flow super. The cluster will end up in the top box in the spring and you don’t want the queen left behind if you use an excluder and you don’t want her laying in the super if you don’t use an excluder.
Hey @Tom_Buscaglia yep winter is coming lol 
Only thing I’d add is to go ahead and harvest those remaining frames, take off the super and let the bees clean em out before storing them. You can always feed the honey back to the bees, in a jar or baggie.
Eva
October 3
Hey
@Tom_Buscaglia
yep winter is coming lol
Only thing Iâd add is to go ahead and harvest those remaining frames,
take off the super and let the bees clean em out before storing them. You
can always feed the honey back to the bees, in a jar or baggie.
Won’t they just start reloading it with honey?
Otherwise, how long should I give them for clean up before pulling the
Super?
thx
Yes, they will reload if there’s still any nectar flow on…so you have to remove the super from the hive. Problem is you can set off robbing from other nearby colonies. Others will hopefully weigh in, but the only way I’ve done it is to set the super on a table well away from any hives. Cleanup activity can be pretty frenzied for a day or so, but there hasn’t been any spillover to my hives (they’re raiding together 
on neutral shores)
Some folks then give the frames a rinse, and then enclose them in plastic, then keep them stored in the Flow super stashed somewhere cool, dry, & protected from critters.
Personally, mine stays on a wooden tray that seals off the bottom, with a sheet of parchment paper under an inner cover and topped by the peaked Flow roof, out on my side porch all winter.
I replace the peaked roof with an insulated cover on the hive it was on.
My all time favorite movie. We went to Punxatawney & drove out to where they have Groundhog Day.
