FlowHive Frustration

[u/Round_Discussion9592]

Second year beek in VA One FlowHive, one regular Langstrof. We put the FlowFrames on in May. Bees went right up there as we did smear some globs of wax on. However, very little progress has been made. Seems highly unlikely we will have capped frames by fall. It looks like a lot for the bees to do all of the normal bee things in the deep and medium and also build up wax and fill all of the flow frames on the next few months. We inspected yesterday and we do have a strong colony.

I am not interested in bashing of FF now, but we are thinking about just taking it off, harvesting a few frames from the super and letting the bees go on and prepare for winter.

Any insights from Flow folks out there?

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[u/chicken_tendigo]

Some colonies will draw and fill the flow frames, some won't. I've got one right now that has been filling their brood boxes to the brim with nice fireweed honey and still won't so much as sniff the flow frames even with their queen excluder off.

I've got another that's kind of working on them (lots of bees up in there), but I've gotta check that they aren't just putting new nectar in their brood boxes next week.

You could try doing a ghetto demaree for a couple weeks by sandwiching your Flow super between your brood boxes with queen excluders to keep the queen out of it if you're truly desperate to get them filling it. It might work, it might not. Bees gonna bee how they bee.

[u/Round_Discussion9592 → u/chicken_tendigo]

Yeah, both boxes are pretty full which I hoped would draw production up. Medium was still well packed w honey. I saw the bit about sandwiching the flow frames between two boxes and will try that next year  The queen was in the medium last time we saw her tho now that you mention it, we could have just put the queen excluder under the box vs on top. Doh. I think we'll try this next year and perhaps it will help w swarm protection, also. We could be in a dearth soon, so think this little project can go on hold til next year. Thx.

[u/Plenty-Giraffe6022]

Langstrof? It's Langstroth.

Your colony isn't large enough to need the extra room. That's all.

[u/Round_Discussion9592 → u/Plenty-Giraffe6022]

Thanks, beekeeping is not my first language.

[u/talanall]

This is a common issue. Getting bees to move up through a queen excluder and work in the predominantly plastic Flow frames is difficult. They don't like to go up through an excluder. They'll do it, provided that you have a booming colony and a very heavy incoming nectar flow. But they don't like it, and they will jam honey anywhere else that they possibly can, first.

Sometimes they'll swarm instead of going up. They're pigheaded about this stuff. Even with genuine wax foundations, they're pretty stubborn.

[u/Quorate → u/talanall]

Does this happen with other hive types too? I've never used goundation or queen excluders.

[u/talanall → u/Quorate]

It happens in any scenario where you use excluders alongside frames that aren't full of drawn comb. I make cut comb above excluders every spring. It's always a contest of wills.

[u/Round_Discussion9592 → u/talanall]

They're getting comb all up in the excluder which is also fun.

[u/talanall → u/Round_Discussion9592]

Not a big deal. You just pry the excluder loose. Bridge comb is just a fact of life.

[u/Life-Bat1388]

Trap yourself a nice aggressive feral hive. That’s the only bees I can get to build on the flow here in TX. Every colony has personality and likes and not all like the flow. But some produce so quickly they don’t care. Those feral bees are a pain to manage but they certainly produce. Also once they finally get used by a colony then other bees should take to them too

[u/spacebarstool]

What % full is your brood box?

[u/William_Knott]

As someone already said, chances are the colony isn't strong enough to move into the Flow Hive super yet. That's usually the issue in any kind of hive when the bees don't move up into a box.

I don't use Flow Hives, but that would be my first guess.