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They came with my flow frame hive order. I would expect you could buy them from the flow frame people.

We remove the frames over winter. I want to keep the queen away from those frames so she never lays eggs in them.

I have 4 of them, I drained 3 and reset them , a day after I drained them the bees resealed them and started putting honey in them again, so I plan to leave them in, my hive is small, frames are 9” x 9” hold a little over 1 quart each, they were all full and capped 100 %, I also have a queen excluder below them, so the queen can’t get to them, I have read in the bee world that is a no no to leave honey in frames with excluder, but they have all their pollen and lots of honey stored below in brood frames, so I think they will not leave the queen, plus the winter in short where I live, the bees are still leaving the hive, if it’s sunny above 45 degrees, so winter is only 3 months here, I will let you know in March if I made a mistake Thanks

In theory, no bees die in the process of turning the keys. The cells open up and any bees that might have been in an uncapped cell won't get stuck. For the most part, the bees don't even know you've turned the keys. The cappings stay mostly in place. The bees will eventually notice and they will remove the caps and clean up the cell and if there's still a flow, they will start to refill them. You should be able to extract at night. I do it during the day so I can see what I'm doing. Bees never really sleep so it doesn't really matter to them. There will be more bees in the hive at night as all of the foragers will be back in for the evening.

@@FreeRangeArtFarmbro bees sleep at night honey bees sleep between 5-8 hours a day ! , i don't understand how people like you even have living bees !!! Well depends on where you live probably

@@6119misha6119 bro, you can be nice when you correct someone. And if you think me saying that bees never really sleep is going to cause me to kill my colonies that's simply an ignorant statement to make. If the person asking the question thinks they can open a hive at night and everyone inside it is tucked in to bed, that could be a dangerous assumption. Some of the bees, mostly the foragers will rest at night. It's not really sleep like we do, but they will experience reduced bodily activity that is akin to what we describe as sleep. Bottom line, don't be a dick when you come on to someone's channel and make a comment. Provide good information and be nice about it. We have too many assholes in the beekeeping community as it is, don't add to it.

It is messy, but after using it a few times, it was pretty fast and a bit less messy. Using a knife is certainly cleaner. I think I'm going to do 9 frame supers next year to get the comb built out wider.

Great advice. I did have a hive tool next to me and used that to clean the tool between each frame. I did get a bit faster toward the end. I think I'm liking the tool for sure.

Actually, that's not paint. When they do the body molds they finish it with a red gel coat. I don't plan to paint it for a couple of years.

@hevchip741 really? You use all natural comb too? What's your reason for avoiding plastic?

@@FreeRangeArtFarm A lot of people are afraid of BPA's or micro plastics from food matter even touching plastic. I'm not sure of the science behind that. Flowhive frames are advertised to be food safe plastics. But then there is a lot of paranoia about now. Nobody knows what's true anymore or who is telling the truth.

@@EndingSimpledo you use straws, or bread or milk, or meat wrapped in plastic, or plastic sandwich bags etc.

@@dano1234v yes. I use them all. The ancient Romans were slowly being poisoned by their lead alloyed kitchenware . If its not one thing that kills you it's another. Just mention it because there are others who care .

​@@dano1234vthat is not the point!

Hey, thanks for reaching out. No, I've been busy with lots of other projects. I'm still keeping the bees, but everything takes three times longer when filming and I just haven't been bringing the camera out. All is going well for the most part in the apiary. Pulled some frames the other day in 95F weather. No fun at all.

@@FreeRangeArtFarm life is busy please take your camera out even if they are short videos. Had a couple of issues with ours, had to requeen a few, awful weather has had a huge impact, no spring harvest which seems to be common in the UK due to adverse weather. Beekeepers have had to feed for fear of starvation which is rare this time of year. Hoping for a summer harvest but really the survival of the colonies is the most important

I checked on them a couple of days ago. They are busy doing their thing.

They certainly do build comb quickly.

I don't believe it works like that. If a random queen made her way to a strange colony, they would be more likely to kill her than accept her.

Thanks!

Ya, I was shocked by the amount of ants. This location is fairly new to me. I moved bees in last June and lost both colonies in the fall. Then moved these girls in the other day. It's funny how different it is being in a forest vs. just under trees in my field. This location is barely 1/2 mile from my main apiary and I have to manage them quite differently.

My other apiary is under trees, but not in a forest. I've talked to the land owner and we might move the hives after this season ends.

@@FreeRangeArtFarm I also put Talstar ant poison under the hive stands and that helps the hive beetles and ants in the apiary.

Great feedback. That makes complete sense to keep the comb in the same orientation.

Thanks for the feedback. I will keep that in mind for next time.

Good info. I was more focused on getting as much comb to fit than keeping the orientation correct. I'm going to keep that in mind for next time.

@@FreeRangeArtFarm They will probably raise the brood but the angle of the cells is not correct so they won’t store anything in it. That’s what I’ve noticed if I put it in wrong. Thanks Thomas!

What are your thoughts about that comb in the future? Do you think the girls will tear it down and adjust the angle or will it be useless comb? I'm thinking they will fix it. It will be interesting to see how they handle it moving forward.

@@FreeRangeArtFarm Put it in upright the first time. Problem with newly drawn comb is that it tends to bee too soft for framing. It even looked like you had some queen cups started on one piece. Keep us posted as to what happens.

LOL... Congrats! You've won nothing.

Thanks! We caught them.

So far it seems to have been successful. They were all moved in to the larger hive and I moved it to my apiary the next day.

That disk doesn't seal well. Rotating it would work if it were in better condition. I taped it to make sure to block all the openings that the bees could escape through.

There are plastic standoffs that isolated the wire from the t-posts

Lol... ya, the disk was drilled out so, none of the positions allowed for ventilation while containing the bees. I need to replace that one. Get those traps up. We are having a very active swarm season.

Good morning!

That it is.