Bees won’t expand if they are battling Chalkbrood, European foulbrood or American foulbrood.Ī good strong single eight frame hive will have at least the equivalent of four full frames of brood in all stages. It is essential that you have a young, vigorous, laying queen. Regardless of whether you start with a nucleus hive, a swarm or a package it is essential to allow the bees to build up to a level where they want to expand into the Flow super.īrood should be present in all stages (eggs, larvae & capped brood). How do I encourage my bees to fill the flow frames?Īs we mentioned at the beginning of the article, two basic requirements need to be in place for bees to produce excess honey and subsequently fill the Flow frames. Bees can survive sub-freezing temperatures for many months provided they have energy stored as honey. The honeybee colony also uses honey to obtain energy to heat the hive when the temperature is cold. The bees eat the excess stored honey and also feed it to developing brood. The European honeybee, (Apis mellifera) has adapted to survive long periods when nectar is not available for example a northern hemisphere winter, a prolonged drought or an extended wet season. Ripe and capped honey in a Flow frame Why do bees store excess honey? Ripe honey is shelf stable and can remain edible for many years without any other means of preservation. Once the cell is filled with “ripe” honey, it is capped with a layer of wax. Also, the bees deposit the dehydrated nectar solution onto the inside of wax cells where it is further reduced to about 17% moisture. One of the enzymes, (invertase) converts sucrose in the nectar to glucose and fructose. This process is repeated many times, and the nectar is mixed with enzymes until the moisture content is reduced from 70% to about 20%. When the bee has visited enough flowers to fill the nectar sac the bee returns to the hive and passes the nectar onto other bees that also ingest the nectar. Honey contains water, fructose, glucose, sucrose, carbohydrates, minerals and proteins (enzymes).īees gather nectar from flowers and fill a modified stomach called a nectar sac. The Food Standards Code describes honey as “ the natural sweet substance produced by honey bees from the nectar of blossoms or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant-sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which honey bees collect, transform and combine with specific substances of their own, store and leave in the honeycomb to ripen and mature.” Orara Valley Honey has honeycombed the internet to come up with the best tips for you to ensure that your Flow hive is productive and healthy.įirstly let’s look at how and why bees make and store excess honey. The availability of nectar for the bees to collect and convert into honey.The ability for bees to produce excess honey comes down to a couple of simple factors: “Why aren’t my bees filling the Flow frames ?” is one of the most frequently asked questions seen on Flow hive related beekeeping Facebook sites and forums.
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