Yeah, he hadnt put any gps trackers in any of his hives because of the cost… but says he will start going forward.
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Breaking a long silence…
Your friend might check around before going gps. When we were in California, our sons were small-time “commercial” beekeepers. In the almond orchards, they used to steal hives. Then, probably because of trackers, they would steal the frames and leave the boxes. Sad, especially because it meant it had to be fellow beekeepers that were doing it.
The other new Kent,
no longer from California 
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And if it isn’t theft, it’s vandalism. Rotten teenagers or lowlives knocking over boxes in the winter.
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I don’t know which is worse. By the way, I could have been clearer: the “they” stealing the hives was definitely not my sons.
Kent
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We have 4 colonies I’ve never seen this, I will do some research. Makes sense to me.
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Welcome Kent, hope to hear from you more in the other DOW topics.
Bob
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Welcome Kent, lots of good information on this site
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Welcome Kent, good luck!
Kent
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Thank you all for the welcome! I’ve been a fly on the wall for years, so many of you seem like old friends though we’ve never “met.” I have built a couple of Simplefires, one pretty much to Gilmore specs, one that turned out more like one of Koen’s, since it had to be see-through. I admire anyone that makes a wood gasifier work. They’re more intimidating to me. Maybe someday.
Kent
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The last frame of honey was 6 cups of aw honey. To day I pulled two frames that will hopefully be more.
I took my first hit harvesting honey today. I was out there and I had to pull the fram that was part of the cross comb of the other 6 cup frame. It was messed up I should of pulled it but it was not completed with capped cells. It still was not competed. The bees got pissed at me. Good thing I had my smoker going good.
Brushing the bees off with lots of smoke. Yikes I have a bee under my hood netting. Ouch she stung me under the right eye. I could see her coming. I was hold the heavy frame kept working hoping her sisters didn’t find the zipper opening. Got the frames out and the new ones back into the hive. Move the cooler with the honey frames away from the hive smoking things down clearing and sweeping the remainder of the bee away to go back to their hive. I put the cooler into the garage. Pulled my bee suit off. In the bath room I pulled the stinger out from under my eye, looking in the mirror. Put some of Dana’s home made balm of gilead on the sting area. It is made from the cottonwood tree buds that we pick early in the spring. With in minutes the swelling was going down under the eye. Good stuff. Thank you Dana.
The right eye is feeling a lot better swelling is going down. We have more of The God Yehovah’s bees, good tasting honey thank you Yehovah.
Bob
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I hear the venom is good for you sometimes if you’re not allergic!
Consider it a shot of Bee Botox!
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Bee stings are good for you. Some people pay $35 to $45 for just one sting. I can get them for free. I just prefer them not under the eye. Kinda of a tender spot for a bee to sting you there. I was wearing shorts it was a good thing she didn’t go up my pants leg. Double yikes. Lol
Bob
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Bob, happened to me once. I somehow thod it was a good idea to take a leak when l was done inspecting the bees, and one must of hid on or in my shorst. If l can choose, l preffer the eye 
It seems bees are programed to sting the eyes, round dark objects. I have found it helps a lot if you peep trugh your eyelids and keep the eyes shut, so that they dont see the eye. Also to breath shalow, the are also atracted to breth.
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Lol, lol, sorry for laughing. I think even sweat will get them going it was hot day, and wearing that bee gear got me sweating even more they like salt. I normaly wear sun glasses it was sure a suprise hanging on to the big comb frame with one hand try to keep the bee from Ouch! Too late, it a good thing they can only sting once, but their sisters can too.
Bob
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Robert, another beekeeper here and another follower of Yah, so such a small world where the internet brings together people who keep bees, use woodgas and know the rarely used name of the Creator. What are the odds?
As far as swarm attractant, have you tried a product called “swarm commander”. I have also heard that if you have an old queen that you are about to replace with a younger newer queen that if you (don’t judge I’ve never done this just sharing the info) if you squash the old queen and put her in a little rubbing alcohol it makes a natural swarm attractant.
Also has any one tried the flow hive frames from Australia yet? I use these and they are very non-invasive and make honey harvesting SUPER EASY turn a key and out it comes. I even made myself a PVC manifold where I can pipe an entire large super into a 5 gallon bucket all at once- it doesn’t replace the old tried and true methods but it is a nice option if you do not want whole comb honey and want to eliminate the mess and disturb the bees as little as possible.
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Do the bees like those or does it slow them down? Do you have to clean up the frames? I have been looking at them for years.
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Hi Sean, this has been my experience with the flow hives, first, I think the most important thing I have found to help my bees use these is in the spring when I am ready to add my supers I mix up some sugar water and honey-b-healthy and put it in a spray bottle and I mist all of the flow hive frames with that, then when I put the super on the hive it seems like the bees get right to it, they go in the cells to clean up the sugar water residue and they learn quickly that they can start storing honey in there.
As far as cleanup, whenever you pull your honey, leave them on empty for a few days and the bees will usually uncap all the wax and use it somewhere else, then you can just pull them off before they start filling the cells again, but if you time it ight and pull honey pretty much when your flow is over you won’t even have to worry about this. What I usually do whenever I do pull them, is gently brush whatever bees are still hanging out off the flow frames back in the hive and for the few stubborn stragglers I just leave the flow frames a few feet away from the hive and gather them after sundown. Done. Everything is pretty much ready for next year. There is not enough wax left for wax moths to really bother, and over winter you may get an occasional roach or something that gets on them and gets curious, but properly stored in a plastic tote you might not even encounter that. I have used them for about 3 seasons now and they really are pretty user friendly - but I would store them in a tote or something because over winter the only damage you could encounter is from mice that are stupid and will chew on the plastic because it smells good I guess.
Also, edit to add - you can use queen excluders if you want, but you may not need to - these cells are a bit deeper than the average and queens generally wont lay eggs in a flow frame.
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I came up with using God’s personal Name, because the bees are His, not mine. I just built them a place to live if they want to. They are wild faral bees. I used lemon grass oil. And that attracked the scout bees to check my nukes out. Ask Yehovah, for His Name sake He will hear you by His word Yeshua the Savior.
I will be pull some more frames soon to harvest.
Bob
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So basically like normal supers? do they fill out the frames better? Bees typically don’t like the corners and outside as much. But these are bigger frames.
does the mechanism work well? I was kind of hoping to just leave it on the hive and tap it every year, but that isn’t going to happen. 
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Yes Sean, it is basically like a normal super, the only difference being as far as I know these frames only come in the deep size which is kind of a bummer because it can get heavy. Theoretically you should never have to lift the box off when it is full because you would be draining it off, but there are times when it it nearly full and you have to get in the hive to inspect something and it can get a little heavy. They are also like a normal frame as you say in that the bees still avoid the outsides and the corners, but they still fill them out pretty well. This year was bad for me for honey because we went into drought early in June and so the dearth came along earlier than normal, but even during this time, I manipulated the frames by taking from the full middle frames and moving them not all the way to the outside, but further along that way by putting an empty in the middle and sort of “checker boardng” full and empty frames to encourage them to fill them up and they did well considering the conditions we were having.
The mechanism does work rather well, it is very simple and is a very long key that inserts into the top of the frame and it is a simple twist up to open, and then twist back down to reset the frame. I will say this though, sometimes I find it helpful not to try to open the entire frame at once, I usually insert the key into the first third, turn to pry it open a little, then go in a little further to the second third of the frame and turn to open it a little more and then I insert it fully and turn and the cells in the frame open all the way quite easily this way.
As far as leaving it on all year, I guess that’s possible - I never have done this simply because the way I do it is I only add these supers when the bees have enough honey for themselves to get through the next winter - in my area, that usually equals two deep boxes, one for brood and a deep to store winter honey - so when I know they are all set with that, I will add my deep flow hive super - but then when I empty it either the bees will have to fill it back up for themselves (which they generally won’t do because the flow is over by then) or else it will just be empty space for them to warm and defend over the winter which makes it harder for them to survive the winter I have found. Empty space equals more room for hive beetles to set up in (even if there is no honey the beetles will seek refuge in an empty flow hive frame if the bees are chasing them out) and also as the winter goes on and the hive moves up further and further into the hive structure consuming their honey stores, at some point they will come into empty space with no food, or at the very least all of their “shivering” to keep warm goes up into an “un-insulated attic space” and makes it harder for them to keep warm so that’s the reason I have never tried leaving on my flow frames.
Although I would say if you timed it right, by pulling honey with at least another month or so of a heavy flow, they could refill the frames and use the space in the winter - but in my experience, even if they are filled with honey, if it is more than what they need for survival they will end up having to defend the space all winter long from invading beetles.
There is a guy in Wingo Kentucky named Kent Williams that has developed a method of overwintering by cramming all his bees into one single deep and then feeding them sugar patties all winter long. The idea is there are more bees occupying less space so they heat it more efficiently and can defend it more efficiently. I have never tried it, but I know a few people that have and I find the idea intriguing. Kent originally developed this method because he caught a late fall swarm that had zero chance of winter survival and he wanted to see if he could get them to survive and he did. We have had him speak at our local bee club before and the guy is super smart. But that’s just like this forum - we all open our ears and listen to what everyone else has to offer and we learn. I know I for one, am extremely grateful for all of the ideas I have heard and things I have learned both at my local bee club and here in the DOW forum.
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