At this Flow Hive Check, we wanted to check to see that the introduced queen of the split hive was laying well, find her and mark her with a yellow dot (for 2022), add a third deep box to the split, apply robbing screens to the entrances of both hives, and add 2-gallon top feeders of sugar syrup to get the bees to draw out wax on foundation frames in the hives.

I'm glad to report success on all fronts except that we only applied one robbing screen to the original hive and left in the entrance reducer of the split hive. Everything is looking great as we fatten up the hives and prepare for winter.

Our next check will be: Saturday, August 27th, 2022 at 10am in the A2B2 teaching apiary in the Campus Farms area of Matthaei Botanical Gardens.

Plan:
1. Checking top feeders to see if bees are taking syrup.
2. Check frames to see if bees have been drawing out comb.
3. Mite test (alcohol wash) to make sure we have strong bees going into winter and report to the BIP August Mite-a-Thon! (https://beeinformed.org/2022/05/06/join-the-2022-mite-a-thon/)
4. If mite counts are above threshold, we will have to wait until the weather will be below 85 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 days (Wednesday) to treat with FormicPro strips.

Hello! Welcome to the new Flow Hive Team blog for A2B2! If you want the A2B2 general blog, just click on the "blog" tab at the top of the page.

So, after a disappointing 2020 with many problems and losing the Flow Hive colony over the winter, the Flow Hive Team is back in beesness with a new nuc installed about a week ago. We checked on the hive today and a beautiful, large, dark, unmarked queen was laying like mad and there were 3 frames of capped brood about to explode the hive's population. A quick powdered sugar roll Varroa mite check revealed only 1 mite per 300 bees or 0.33%, so no treatment necessary! Since the honey flow is starting in Ann Arbor, we placed a queen excluder and the Flow Hive super on the hive and expect to be harvesting some honey from it in mid to late June, but I'll keep you posted.

For more information on the A2B2 Flow Hive, the Flow Hive in general, or if you'd like to become part of the A2B2 Flow Hive Team who helps maintain the hive and harvest honey, please email Jen Haeger at [email protected].