Wintering your Flow Hive / Flow Frames

last winter we drained the flow super before removing it- the honey was not ripe- quite watery. We froze it and used some to make mead- and fed the rest back to bees in spring. We left the frames near the hive for a few days for the bees to clean them up- then we washed them in a tub of warm water. Then we simply stored them in a plastic tub with a lid over winter. they looked pretty messy with all the broken wax cappings. next spring we put them back on and the bees very quickly cleaned them all up.

This winter- on at least a few hives- I plan to test leaving the flow super on. this is because in Adelaide it is not that cold in winter- no frosts- and the bees tend to keep foraging whenever the weather is good.

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Fair enough, so how then do you store or what do you do with uncapped honey? If I drain the frames I’d rather not have to wash them as I’d need to remove the cappings to wash thoroughly. I guess an option is to remove the qx and leave the supers on. We don’t have harsh winters here however propolising could be an issue.

It’s in a box :blush:

Uncapped honey goes to the bees. I put the super under the brood box and they move it up

I would drain the uncapped honey and store it frozen until I needed to feed the bees. I might rinse out the honey drainage channel, but I wouldn’t actually wash the rest of the frames. I think the harvesting will get the cells clean enough not to worry. I like @Dee’s suggestions too.

Hi Semaphore
I live in Melbourne an this is my 1st season with the Flow Hive. Our winters are a little colder than yours but not too cold and I noticed the bees would forage on some days too thru last winter.
I was wondering how you went leaving the Flow supers on last winter as I’m thinking I’ll do the same this coming winter ( I haven’t had my Flow hive thru a winter yet)

I just posted about this in this thread:

I was wondering if anyone else that lives in Melbourne Vic left their Flow Super box on during winter?

Hi Chris,

There are a few posts in our winter section from Victorians, I haven’t had a chance to look through them. But you should be able to find some info if you click the link below.

https://forum.honeyflow.com/search?q=vic%20category%3A33

Here is a search for “Melbourne” - there a few in there:
https://forum.honeyflow.com/search?q=melbourne

Hi,

Do you usually remove any frames from the brood box before winter?
I do that with the Dadant Blatt hive, there are 10 frames and I usually remove those frames that are not covered by bees.
6/7 frames are enough in our region.
Thank you,

Do you mean that you leave empty space beside the 6 or 7 frames in the brood box?

Yes, I leave some room. I mean, the frames are centered and then there is some room on the sides, between them and the hive inner wall.

That’s interesting. I thought if there was lots of room left they would build crazy comb, and also that space could potentially make them cold.

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@Luca I agree completely with Faroe, the hive will be warmer with the right number of frames in the hive, the bees will feel more comfortable as they don’t like empty spaces and having the frames in the hive will give the bees chores to do to get the frames ready to be used.
Cheers

Hi @Peter48 and @Faroe , actually they do not build comb during winter as they are clustered.
As you know we mostly use Dadant Blatt hives in Italy, the hive and the frames are bigger than Langstroth furthermore we have 10 frames each hive.
If I don’t remove at least 2 o 3 frames (external) then I will find mold on the capped honey in spring.
I live near a big lake and our winters are quite humid, without those frames there is more room for ventilation and the interior of the hive is not gonna condensate, especially the inner cover.

However I’m checking the flow hive and situation seems to be different. I didn’t have to remove any frames as it looks warm and dry to me :wink:
Thank you,

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We’re going into the Polar Vortex now, and the bees are making it so far. Someone asked me to share this video here, so here you go flow Friends…

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https://youtu.be/CZsGV1F8xbQ This may help those who will be wintering their flowhives in colder climates. It’s time to be thinking about the shift and this has been a fantastic summer for the bees in the northeastern United States. We will be pulling all Flow-Supers off in the next two weeks. This leaves the foragers a few more weeks for winter stores and weather proofing their hives.

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Newbie to the forum, hello! We are preparing for winter here in the CO mountains and looking to add a candy board. Does anyone have a resource for a premade frame that will fit our Flow hive, or good instructions on making our own? It seems simple enough but if someone has already done the work that would be great. Thank you so much!

Hello I’m a newbie from Midwest Kansas USA. We have the Flow2+

Myquestion is about the queen excluder during winter months. We do get snow here and winters are not consistent
I have looked everywhere I can think of regarding winterizing and have found some conflicting information and hoping someone can clarify or direct me to a more specific source

  1. Fredrick Dunn utube removed the excluder during winter for one flow hive and not the other to compare. The queen laid eggs and the bees capped them inside the system on the one he removed the excluder. This seemed very problematic as to what do do when the flow portion of the hive is sealed with caps and pupae Of course not much more info on that and how to clean or deal with as I’m still watching his videos
    but his final on this experience was “don’t remove the queen excluder” which is something not typically done in winter
  2. Before I signed into this blog there was a thread where it was agreed that removing the queen excluder was problematic for the winter and could not find the thread once I signed up
  3. Signed in and now the post here says to remove the excluder “bc the queen won’t lay eggs” (but she does sometimes)

So please someone help me understand what is the best measure for winters that are not typically double digit freezing - without killing/starving the queen and without destroying the honey flow trays/section where she lays eggs in

Hoping this makes sense -
I’m just thoroughly confused

I’m your climate I would definitely remove the flow super and the queen excluder.

Make sure your bees and the queen have access to enough stored honey to get them through until spring. This may require additional brood boxes.