Thanks Skeggley. Fitting a migratory lid under the Flow lid sounds like a good idea though I?m pretty sure I fixed the leaks for good now.
Replacing the Flow hive bit by bit is like the Ship of Theseus. Can?t replace the bottom board till spring anyway but still have to sort the water pooling there.
Yeah FlowHive have let me down this time. The same girl replied my email lecturing me on how to silicone the dodgy roof instead of giving me a solution for the design fault of their bottom board.
Hey mate,
Don't have a flow hive so can't comment on their roofs but I've used MG covers with hive mats, inner cover + telescopic lid and currently inner cover with a meshed vent + gabled telescoping tops.
I have to say that I'm not really a fan of MG tops for a variety of reasons and am moving back to the telescoping types, the gabled ones are good for keeping rain off and provide abit more air space for heat management, but they also provide a place for ants to colonise so watch out for that.
My favourite is definitely the inner cover (no vent) with a flat telescoping top as that is what I had when I started out, I find them much more solid and heavy so it never blew off, but you can put a brick on it too, and when you do inspections the upside down outer lid makes a great place to put any boxes you take off. The inner cover can be harder to pry off but I prefer that to burr comb under an MG cover, I find my bees usually block off the MG vents too.
I intend to move back to these kind of covers when I can find some decently made ones, as all my local Aussie suppliers seem to have moved completely to MG covers.
I've also used several different hive bases with varying levels of success. Started with the old flat type with risers and cleats and a retrofitted SHB trap ($30). wasn't too bad. 'Upgraded' to ones with full mesh bottoms and a pull out oil tray ($85 each), these were good at catching beetles but also had design flaws that harboured beetles too - not ideal. They will also let SHB in in huge numbers if you try running open bottoms for ventilation (learnt that the hard way and almost lost two hives to sliming overnight).
Looking at Flows baseboard and how basic it looks I don't know how they think its worth $140+ (depending on what timber you use), seems like gouging to me.
I've just changed my hives over last Saturday to two new bases made out of marine ply and stainless fixings and after two days I think I can already see some noticeable improvements, they are also more economical than the aforementioned bases I've used and look like they will last for years. They have a version to suit Flow too.