I, too, have been mentoring friends with their two FlowHives. I have collected a couple of tips that seemed to help and followed some of the manufacturer's recommendations.
We build up a hive to 1 Deep and 1 Medium (Med: primarily drawn and maybe with some brood). Once we have this, I split the hive using the FlowHive super. This causes bee traffic across the super. One of the hives started to use the FlowHive super. I then moved the medium down to on top of the deep, then placed the queen excluder. (We're in Massachusetts, so their base config right now is a Deep & Medium, this is because they are in transition to all mediums.)
The other hive didn't like the FlowHive super. So, near the end of last season, I took a thin tincture of propolis and alcohol and, lightly sprayed it across the frame's surface and let it dry, then sprayed it with 1:1 syrup. It worked, but the season was ending, so we pulled it. The result was one frame full of honey and one partially filled with honey/nectar. I let the hive rob the partial out.
Supposably, the frames are only suitable for 3-5 years; not sure where I picked that info up. From the people I watch online (YouTube: Fred Dunn, etc.), this is not their experience if one pulls the FlowHive frames and doesn't allow the bees to mess them up over the winter. It's a "precision" piece of equipment.
Queen will lay in the FlowSuper so a queen excluded is strongly recommended.
We cleaned the FlowHive with hot water and a pressure washer, dried them, and put them away for the winter.
The other tricky part is tilting the hive backward a few degrees when one harvests. I used two bottle jacks on a warm day to jack up the front of the hive. See the manual.
I'm excited for next year and have a co-worker thinking of giving me her FlowHive. So I might have my own soon to mess with. I have to say the kit is well-made and well-thought-out. It's a lot less fuss than an extractor.
Bernie
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