Beekeeping With Home-made Flow Hive

Today we are going to harvest our flow frames. We were founding supporters of the flow frames and received our six frames at the end of the year. In the spring a beekeeper friend of ours had given us a swarm that he had captured which quickly turned into a strong colony. We decided to put our home-made super containing the flow frames on this strong hive at the end of May. The bees started checking out the flow frames pretty soon. At first it looked like they were closing the little gaps mostly with propolis, but quickly they turned to using wax. It took a while for them to really start working on the flow frames. But over the weeks they became more and more busy filling out the flow frames with wax, and filling them up with nectar. At some point at a couple of flow frames a bit of nectar started to leak into the flow frame trough, due to the bees not having been careful enough with waxing up the cells of the flow frames. It looks more than it actually is and the bees will repair the leakage with wax. The flow frames have a built-in gap that allows this nectar to drip back into the brood-box where the bees will lick it up. We cleaned off the propolis of the closing discs to ensure the flow back gaps were open. We also tightened the strings that hold together the flow frames by simply putting a small piece of wood underneath the strings. In the winter when the super is off the hive we will adjust the string tension by adding some extra windings to the string. The bees kept relocating the honey in the cells on the edges to the flow frames and the most outer frame on the right was hardly capped at all. Half way August we decided to inspect the situation inside the super itself again and it became clear quickly clear that most of the flow frames were ready to be harvested. The next day we started the harvest. First you have to open the flow tube access point by taking off the cap. Insert the flow tube with the little tab position down. This will block the honey leak back point so that the honey from the trough does not flow into the hive. We are using a 2.6 liter container here to collect the honey which has to be positioned at the right height. We simply screwed the ledge into the hive. To prevent the bees from getting to the honey while we are harvesting we used a bit of screening which is kept in place with a rubber band. Be sure to put the varoa tray underneath the hive to prevent any leaking honey from dripping on the ground. The hive has to be placed at a 2.5 to 5 degrees angle towards the honey outlets to make it easier for honey to flow out of the flow frames. Take out the cap in the upper part of the flow frame to be able to insert the key in the lower slot. And then turn. Even when doing it in steps and inserting the key partway it took us quite a bit of force to turn the key and crack open the flow frames. During the harvest when the cells are cracked, most wax cappings stay intact. As you can see on this not fully filled and capped flow frame, if not all cells have been capped by the bees the honey will overflow and will go the easiest route down on the outside. But most of our flow frames were 95 % capped. Here comes the honey... Not much of the honey leaked through the brood box and onto the varoa tray, the spilled honey will be cleaned up and re-used by the bees. We adjusted the slope of the hive a bit to facilitate the flow of honey. Although there were bees busy outside on the entrance of the hive, they did not go to the back where we were harvesting. At another harvest occasion we did have several bees trying to reclaim the honey at the back. It probably depends on the time of day, the weather and the availability of nectar and pollen. whether or not they are attracted by the smell of honey while harvesting the flow frames. As soon as they can, the bees will start working on cleaning up the flow frames to make it ready for next use. It is best to keep the key in the turned down position in the slot to keep the cells cracked open to the max, to make the honey flow quicker. After harvesting a flow frame, the key needs to be inserted in the upper slot, and turned to align the cells again. If you do not do this, the cap at the top will not fit. Take out the flow tube and close the honey outlet at the bottom of the flow frame. Don't forget to take out the varoa tray. This particular flow frame gave us 2.6 kilograms of honey, or almost three big jars. In the meantime inside the super, the bees will take off and recycle the wax cell capping, clean the frame of honey and they will start to restore the flow frame. In total we harvested a bit more than 13 kilograms of honey divided over 15 of these big jars, during this year's season.

Channel: Camping La Chassagne

Views: 19,864

Keywords: CampingLaChassagne, natuur, groenecamping, bijen, bijenhouden, kleinecampingsfrankrijk, imker, kamperenindenatuur, authentiek, lachassagne, rustruimtenatuur, bijenvolk, camping la chassagne, Ronnet, beekeeping, flow frames, flow hive, treatment-free, motion graphics, text animation, educational, nature education, how to, video editing, multi media production, video production, animation, insect, honeyflow, apiculture, cool technology, keeping bees, bees, honey harvesting, harvesting honey, honey

Id: Ub418RRwnuU

Length: 6min 20sec (380 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 28 2020