# Flow Hive, Firsthand Experience



## Barry

I am only going to allow this one thread to stay, apart from this one: http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?307501-Extractor-less-honey-by-Flow-Hive

For those who actually have the hive/frames and want to share their experience with them, do it here.


----------



## DAM Bees

Canyou move this thread over to the main flow hive forum? Or should I resubmit?


----------



## ruthiesbees

DAM Bees said:


> Canyou move this thread over to the main flow hive forum? Or should I resubmit?


I believe Barry is allow this thread to be separate from the other one. This thread is for those who want to report on their actual experiences with the flow hive, vs. giving their opinion on it. I think it's a good idea, 'cause the other one was too big, in my opinion.


----------



## DAM Bees

Gotcha!


----------



## fraz6020

I am curious to the idea it looks neat. You say it was exspensive. How much was it?


----------



## aunt betty

There are at least two other members who have been gifted flow-hives by well-intentioned friends.


----------



## burns375

Too expensive now. The price will go down once tooling and volume is established. Even lower after the patent expires in 15 years.

I will have a set next spring to play around with.


----------



## DAM Bees

$340.00 for just 6 deep frames, plus $40 shipping. I did get a nice founding member hat with veil. It better work!


----------



## fraz6020

Yea that's a lot of money, but its neat if it works. That would be a lot of deeps and frames. Keep us posted.


----------



## jwcarlson

aunt betty said:


> There are at least two other members who have been gifted flow-hives by well-intentioned friends.


Aunt Betty,
I told you that in confidence dang it!


----------



## BeeCurious

DAM Bees said:


> I don't plan on using the Flow Hive until Spring


Perhaps you can have the title of your thread changed to:

"Flow Hive, firsthand experience coming in the Spring of 2016"


----------



## fivekai

just got my frames and the complete hive. i was impressed with the quality of the frames. the cedar hive bodies quality control and finish leave a bit to be desired. mine has a couple of chips and cracks and scratches everywhere. im no perfectionist when it comes to my hive woodenware but at this price i expected a product with no issues. i am waiting for a response from the flow hive team to see what they can do to remedy the situation. 

anyone know whos is making their woodenware. i have a hunch that its www.beethinking.com since mine shipped from oregon and they are the only manufacturers of cedar hives that i found....


----------



## Rader Sidetrack

>> anyone know whos is making their woodenware.


See post #1478 of the main Flow Hive thread ...
http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...e&p=1301503&highlight=beethinking#post1301503


----------



## Joel

Dam, keeping in mind that most of Edison's inventions were flops in the beginning, I will be looking forward to real world results. No matter what else, a couple of beekeepers worked hard to figure out, design and manufacture a dream. Now we (and they) will find out how well they dreamed! Thanks for your investment in the equipment and moreso for being willing to share it with us.


----------



## fivekai

thank you


----------



## Beethinking

fivekai,

I'm sorry your hive arrived with some damage -- we're in communication with Flow about your parts and we're working to resolve it. The scratching will be hard to avoid entirely given the fact that cedar is so soft. The quality has been top-notch coming from our mill, and I assure you they aren't leaving our facility with scratches, cracks and chips! Since these were the first hives to ship out I'm sure we'll find packaging improvements as we get feedback from customers like you. 

Sincerely,
Matt


----------



## fivekai

Thank you for the reply but the box was in perfect condition. Looks to me like they were packed that way. Three chips which I will post pics of tommorrow and also a cracked roof piece


----------



## Beethinking

fivekai,

I hear you and I've seen the pictures sent so far. We ship many thousands of hives each year and while the boxes often look great, it's the shifting of the parts within the box that usually lead to chips/scratching. This is especially the case with cedar since it's such a soft wood. We have strict quality control processes at both our mill and our shipping facility to prevent off-specification parts from getting packed in the first place. Being that this is a new product for us, I think it's going to take a bit of time to perfect the packing within the box to minimize contact between the most fragile parts (shingles/box sides). Regardless, we'll be working with the Flow folks to get your issues rectified ASAP.

Best,
Matt


----------



## fivekai

Thanks for the quick reply I hope the issue is solved quickly. I have waited a very long time for this hive and paid alot of money, I actually ordered 2 of them. And to have an this issue when I have bees arriving next week is a real inconvenience.


----------



## Beethinking

I know the Flow team is working round-the-clock to keep up with customer inquiries. I just figured I'd do my part here on Beesource since I'm not sure if any of them monitor it! I can tell you from communication with them that resolving any issues you're having is of utmost importance! 

Best,
Matt


----------



## fivekai

i need replacement for the following parts

qty 2 pieces roof singles
qty 1 short side of brood box ( the deep box)


----------



## Native Plants

1. Buy the box with the frames. Even with a shop and tools (and help) it was a full day of modifications and a trip to a big box store and the robotics lab to acquire the parts to finish the box. Make your life easier - just buy the box.

2. The flow arrived in June, just after the nectar flow stopped. I took my time with the box, and paint, and took the entire set to the local beekeepers meeting so they could get a look at it. It finally went on the hive around Labor Day to catch the fall nectar flow. I could see bees up in the box checking it out within minutes. The Flow went on the strongest of 7 hives, one that had been in existance for three years. Honey had already been pulled from hives at this point, with two medium boxes of honey on top of the three brood boxes still in place.

3. I have been in the hive to inspect a couple of times, and each time found 100+/- bees in the Flow, but no nectar. I was asked to take the Flow to the Beekeepers annual dinner last night. I went to inspect the box, and found that the bees had completed the cell seams with propolis. I could not get the frames into the open position. I tried for about 45 minutes to use the key to manipulate the frames. No success; the frames are locked tight with propolis. I finally took the box off the hive to work on it (didn't want to be late for dinner!), and took it to the meeting. I have asked FLOW HIVE for comment on how to get the frames open. The bees put no nectar in the 6 frames. I don't want to force the frames to the point of breaking. I'll let you know what FLOW has to say. To say that I'm frustrated with the product is an understatement. Pics soon.

4. The good news for the season: 245 lbs of honey from three hives, on top of 40-60 lbs left on each hive - with standard equipment.


----------



## aunt betty

You need to smack it with a hatchet (the sharp end...many times).


----------



## Native Plants

^About there, Betty. From oberservation of hives, bees don't put honey where they have propolis. My concerns are less with getting the frames open than with the bees putting nectar in the frames.


----------



## fivekai

You need to post this in the flow hive forums. Flow hive has their own forums set up on their site. The People from flow hive aren't checking this forum. I posted my issue there and they got involved quickly.


----------



## jim lyon

fivekai said:


> You need to post this in the flow hive forums.


Actually not. Barry allowed this thread specifically for these types of first hand accounts.


----------



## fivekai

I meant the flow hive forum on the flow hive website.


----------



## jim lyon

Agree, sorry bout that.


----------



## Native Plants

Fivekai,
I did post directly to Flow Forum. It does not allow pictures, so I put them here. This forum is larger, with a more diverse audience that might not be on Flow.

As an update, I took the Flow out of my trunk this morning, and it was about 40^F. I was able to break the frame apart two sections at a time. The propolis is brittle at this temp. So... the frames can be opened, but will the bees put nectar where the cells have been sealed with propolis?

Strips of propolis on the counter.


----------



## Barry

fivekai said:


> I meant the flow hive forum on the flow hive website.


But what Jim said still needs to be stressed. People from this forum need to post their experience here, not be sent to another forum to post. I don't follow what is going on there. So Native Plants, keep us updated!


----------



## Joel

My experiance tells me bees use se propolis for more permanent modifications such as closing unwanted openings and gluing frames together and when we remove propolis it is repropolized. I wonder out loud if the frames were beeswax coated if that would change their perception


----------



## Eddie Honey

The Flow team seems to answer very quickly here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1611910632374007/


----------



## Native Plants

I posted on The facebook group above, and the other Flow facebook group. Have not heard from a Flow representative, but have found several other Flow owners with this problem of propolis in the cell seams. I wonder if this is a difference of continent or bee type.


----------



## Eddie Honey

I doubt it. These are European honey bees whether in the USA or overseas.


----------



## Eddie Honey

Barry, 
Can you remove my post (#33). 

That FB moderator has gone rogue lol
Facebook users are migrating to this one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1701826046713794/


----------



## fivekai

So i got my replacement wood and besides the pilot holes missing on one and not drilled all the way through on another shingle the quality of the wood looks much better.

besides the replacement parts for my flow hive i also placed an order with bee thinking for the following......
2 deeps, the quality looks good
1 top round feeder, this arrived broken.

here we go again send pics and wait for replacement. 

thats 2 shipments i get with an issue from this company.


----------



## Native Plants

Just got off a half-hour Skype with Cedar and Stewart. Seriously. They have a real interest in my experience, and offered suggestions for next spring. It does not make sense for me to keep the empty Flow on the hive for the winter as we will not have more nectar flow until then. There is learning on both ends as I describe the nectar flow in the Mid-Atlantic, and they give me help with the frames. Playing with the frames I am learning about small engineering parts - such as you can't put the top cap in unless the sections are closed. In other words, you can't put the open cells back in the hive, and just draining down. The cap will only fit when closed. I learned this while trying to put the frame back in the box mistakenly open. I'm very happy with the sharing of ideas, help, and willingness to listen.


----------



## mharrell11

*Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

Quick note of my experience so far with the Flow Hive.

I currently have 8 hives including the 1 Flow Hive. I expect with splits and other hives I will add by the end of the year, I will have 25 - 30 hives. 

I purchased a Flow Hive Supper when the Kick Starter Campaign was in process. My intent was to use this on an experimental bases to see how it would compare to my other hives on honey production. From a cost point of view, it is too costly for commercial use but potentially could be good for a back yard setup with no more than 1 or 2 hives. I finally received it back in late February.

Back in November 2015 I purhcased 2 Nucs from a local beekeeper and put them in 8 frame deeps. One was a little stronger than the other. I added a medium supper to the stronger back in early March. Since I had just received my Flow Hive a week earlier I was too busy to put it together and setup to use on the stronger Nuc so I had to wait until late March(actually April 1st) when the other hive was strong enough to add a super. 2 days later I added a QE.

Here are my results so far.

End of Week 1 - The Flow Hive makes a pretty good SHB Hotel It was crawling in large numbers of SHB's. Bees were actively playing hide and seek with the SHB's in the Flow Hive cells. I considered pulling it off at this point, but since there were no SHB's in the lower deep, I decided to leave it on. Already had a SHB trap in the main hive along with a beetle barn. So I added another beetle trap to the flow hive and left it in place and went on vacation.

End of Week 2 - Thought for sure I would be removing the flow hive. To my surprise, it looked like the bees had gotten the SHB issue under better control. There are still SHB's, but not in such large numbers. Traps were empty and the bees had started filling the middle of the 2 inner frames. Must have been a large emergence of bees during the week. The hive population was noticeably larger from the prior week in the deep and the number of bees working in the flow hive was also much larger.

I usually only inspect a hive every other week, but in the case of the Flow Hive, I will be doing it weekly until I am confident it will work out. Other than the issue with the SHB's, I wouldn't think that there would be any difference in what to expect with the rest of the hive. However, due diligence is in order at this point.


----------



## jwcarlson

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

I suspect many frustrated people who find out their Flow frames are actually propolis traps. Seeing the pictures it was my first thought, that the bees will fill the gaps with propolis. And now having seen the frames first hand (someone I know bought one), I cringed a little...


----------



## Michael Bush

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

>I suspect many frustrated people who find out their Flow frames are actually propolis traps.

So far I've only seen the cracks filled with wax.


----------



## Kamon A. Reynolds

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

The propolis will depend upon region. Seasons that are short are not going to have near the problem as longer seasons will. I know for a fact if you have your flow Hive on any other time in Tennessee than in the early spring you are asking for propolis problems. Ours bees plug up the hive in the late summer / fall like it is going out of style.


----------



## mharrell11

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

Week 3 Inspection. The Flow was looking pretty good. I have a 7 Frame Flow. The bees are working the center out on both sides of 3 frames and one side of the 2 more. The all look pretty much like this. Using wax and not propolis in the frames.

http://eye.fi/S84ukN


----------



## jwcarlson

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

mharrell11, that looks pretty good, thanks for the pic! 
Good flow going on now for you down there?


----------



## mharrell11

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

The flow is pretty good right now and will be that way until July when it drops off for about 2 months.


----------



## mharrell11

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

Didn't do a full inspection this week, I just pulled off the end cap of the Flow Hive. I have to admit I was surprised at how much honey they have added this week. I was pretty impressed.








One final note. When I added the flow I saw a ton of SHB's the 1st week. I did lift the inner cover and did not see a single SHB today.


----------



## mharrell11

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

Another update....

Looking like I will be extracting the honey from Flow this week. I decided to add another brood box this week while doing my inspection, so I had to remove the Flow. It was very heavy. Guessing it was around 60 pounds at least. The Flow doesn't really have a good placement of handles to lift, so it was difficult to put it back on a 2 tier deep. 

BTW, 2 tier deeps is my way of doing splits.


----------



## mharrell11

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

Extracted 3 frames of honey yesterday. Yielded about 11 lbs(my scale could be off) of honey or little more than 1 1/2 gallons in my 2 gallon bucket. Bees apparently thought there was a honey raid happening.

Video of hive during extraction.


----------



## coastie

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

How are you sure all the honey is capped before drawing it off? DO you check the moisture content?


----------



## mharrell11

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

I did test and it was fine, but you could actually see the caps all the way to the ends of the 3 frames I extracted. I should have taken a photo before I extracted so all could see. Here is a photo I took this morning. The bees have not cleared the was from the frame yet, but you can see the capping on the empty frames.


----------



## Tenpin

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

I've been documenting my experiences with the Flow Hive since I installed a three-frame nuc on March 19th.
I'll post all my videos here and add more when I publish them.


Enjoy.

Install Day


----------



## Tenpin

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

A couple of days after install. Hand-made reducer.


----------



## Tenpin

End of Week One: Note that I have traditional hives as well.


----------



## Tenpin

Week 2: Drawn comb


----------



## Tenpin

Week 4: Added a brood box. Here you see why I don't narrate videos.


----------



## Tenpin

Week 5: 1st of 3 Oxalic Acid Vaporization treatments


----------



## Tenpin

week 5.5: Some Slo-Mo


----------



## Tenpin

Week 6: Prepping the Flow frames with wax and adding the super


----------



## Tenpin

Week 6.2: Acceptance of the Flow Frames


----------



## Tenpin

Week 7: Bees heavily working the Flow Frames


----------



## Tenpin

Week 8: Washboarding and Nectar in the outer frame


----------



## Bee9

Howdy folks,

I'm brand new here, and a new beekeeper. I bought one complete flow hive and a langsroth 10 frame hive this spring. I was able to buy two 5 frame nucs of italians from Apis hives here in Colorado back in May. I made some mistakes this season but both my hives are healthy and doing well. I pulled my flow frames from the hive a few weeks ago preparing for fall. I don't want the plastic parts out in the cold all winter and I don't think these supers are made for wintering of bees. When I pulled the frames there was capped honey in all 6 frames, a small amount in the center of each. I was able to crack them all fairly easily and harvest the small amount of honey (about 3 pints). I added a medium box for new food storage hoping to have the bees collect more stores for the winter. I think it was a mistake to add the flow super the first year. We still have many blooming plants and flowers here but I think I will need to feed this winter.

I have been using Micheal Bush's informative videos for most of my learning experience and I see he posts here a lot so thank you. I am attempting to go all natural without treatment. My beekeeper friends think that is the wrong way to go but we will see. I don't like poison so I try not to eat it or feed it to anyone or anything I care about.

FYI the flow hive was shipped in good condition, I did have to do some light sanding to get the pieces to fit. I really like the way it is built, seems to be built to withstand some abuse. Since the boxes and frames came from a different place than the flow frames, I received two bee hats. lol


----------



## Eddie Honey

Thank you for posting about your progress. Good luck with your bees!


----------



## Saltairbees

Hi 
Here is a quick summary of how our Flow Hive has worked out in its first year.
We installed a package of New Zealand bees March 6, 2016 and the hive has strong right from the start.
We were able to install flow frames by the end of April and the bees were adding nectar to Flow Flame by second week of May.
The hive was building up so much that we pulled the Queen and a bunch of bees off in third week of May to stop possible swarming.
Unfortunately I left too many Queen cells and it did swarm a couple times. Caught & hived both so not to big of deal for us.
The hive's new Queen mated successfully and has been strong all summer. 
Most of our hives are taken up into the mountains for Fireweed but down here after the blackberry finishes there is not a lot around but the hive still filled all the Flow Frames.
Last weekend we finally drained the frames and got a good 3 gallons of honey.

Here is a few things that always seem to come up on the forums.
Swarming: We can't say the swarm more than regular hive but you need to practice swarm control just like any other hive. 
Propolis: Ya ours bees like to glue things down a lot and it did make removing the flow frames out a little bit of work but still managable. It would be nice if the flow frames had a good spot to hook hive tool on at the forward end.
Harvesting: We attached hose to drain tube and ran it into a jar. Honey flowed out quickly but we did notice that a bit of honey did run off the face of the frames thru brood box and out screened bottom. The bees had that stopped quickly. We had no bees trying to get at honey in bottles during harvesting but we did put a layer of plastic wrap over top of jar.
Honey: The harvested honey was clean with no further need of screening.

The Flow Frames worked like we thought they would and we would recommend them for anyone that likes the easy way of harvesting but you still need to inspect & manage the hive just like regular hive


----------



## aunt betty

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*



mharrell11 said:


> Extracted 3 frames of honey yesterday. Yielded about 11 lbs(my scale could be off) of honey or little more than 1 1/2 gallons in my 2 gallon bucket. Bees apparently thought there was a honey raid happening.
> 
> Video of hive during extraction.


If 1.5 gallons of honey only weighs 11 pounds...Houston we have a problem. 
A gallon of honey is twelve pounds here in Illinois.


----------



## Huxta

*will bees clean this up or should I*

I bought a used landstroth and flowhive that wax moths had taken over. My question is with the frames. In spring, when I put a colony in the hive, will the bees clean up the flowhive frames or should I take the time to pick all the cocoons out of the cells? Not sure if wax moths will actually lay in cells or if these are brood cells. Also, If I clean the regular langstroth plastic frame foundation will that be ok or should I put new foundation in each of the frames?


----------



## johnbeejohn

*Re: will bees clean this up or should I*

I would clean it urself 

I have a feeling there will be a lot of these used flow hives up for sale in the future lol


----------



## Grins

*Re: will bees clean this up or should I*



johnbeejohn said:


> I would clean it urself
> 
> I have a feeling there will be a lot of these used flow hives up for sale in the future lol


Why? Don't you just set it up, put some bees in and turn the spigot whenever you want honey? It seems so easy. 
:lpf: :lpf: :lpf: :lpf:


----------



## Hops Brewster

*Re: will bees clean this up or should I*

If the wax is destroyed, scrape off the plastic foundation and let the bees re-draw them. If it's just a minor infestation, you could freeze the frames and let the bees clean the cells out and repair the wax.

The wax _can_ be melted and strained to clean it out, but if it's too bad, it wouldn't be a crime to throw it away.

Flowhive; you're on your own. I know nothing.


----------



## Huxta

*Re: will bees clean this up or should I*

The wax was pretty much destroyed. I will scrape it all down, clean as best as I can and let everything freeze over the winter.


----------



## Skeggley

*Re: will bees clean this up or should I*

If you go to the Flow site there are instructions on how to disassemble and reassemble the FF which is recommended if the frames get contaminated.


----------



## Windclimber

Is there another thread that actually talks about the utilization of flow hives? I have a pasture out in the middle of nowhere that I am hoping to put a (some) flow hives in and get a few gallons of local honey a year by disturbing them maybe twice a year. My old delapidated barn currently has a 5-6 year old hive in the floor so I know the bees have proper habitat. Do I have realistic expectations?


----------



## johnyeagermt

I have a six flow frame box that I put on a two deep brood hive in mid to late June of this year. The colony started from a 5 frame NUC in mid May. I ended up harvesting a little over 2.5 gallons from the hive in August. I coated the frames with beeswax that I had collected from the hive while doing inspections. This is similar to what others have done with normal frames with plastic cells. This definitely helped. Bees were up on the frames almost immediately. Within a week they had begun to close up the cells and add nectar. Harvesting was easy. I put on the tube at the bottom of the frame for the honey to flow out of. Placed a jar below the bottom of the tube and wrapped saran wrap around it to keep the bees out of the jar. Took about 20 minutes or so to empty a full frame. The only other advice I would give is to not open all of the cells at once. It fills the bottom channel up so fast when you do that it can leak honey out of the bottom of the frame back into the hive. There are definitely a lot of naysayers out there but the frames work well. All this frame has done is made the harvesting process a lot easier. Will you have problems if you don't take of these like you would normal honey super frames, absolutely. Your going to spend money on an extractor and other equipment to extract the honey if you do it the traditional way. These are perfect for the beekeeper that doesn't have a lot of hives or a mentor/club that has an extractor to use.


----------



## johnyeagermt

Windclimber. You still need to take care of your hives and do inspections on them periodically. The flow hive website has plenty of videos on how they work. Quite a few videos on Youtube as well. I would recommend getting a few books and reading up on what you have to do to keep bees. Do you have a club in the area? If so ask someone if you can come by and have them show you what you have to do to take care of bees. Its not a lot of work to take care of a hive or two but you can't just leave them alone for most of the year and expect results.


----------



## Tenpin

Here's some first-hand stuff from yours truly


----------



## Tenpin

*Re: Honeyflow Hive*

Here, go check out my youtube channel if you want to see what the last year has been like for me with mine.

https://www.youtube.com/user/rtenpin


----------



## MillerPutnam

Hey, was hoping to see some reports of your Flow Hive for the 2016 Spring...how did it do? I bought one for me and one for my son last year...have great expectations for this spring, 2017. Miller


----------



## Tenpin

This is 6 of 8 Quarts I pulled from my Flow Spring of 2016. 6 frames, 6 different color kinds of honey.

View attachment 31424


----------



## Kenww

*Re: Flow Hive Experience - So Far*

Maybe 11 pint jars?


----------



## MikeJ

I imagine most have now had a season of use - "extracted" their honey, and storing them for winter.

What is the verdict?
Would those who have used them recommend them?

I ask so that can I have a reply to those asking me about these hives.
Thanks


----------



## Michael Bush

I continue to use them.


----------



## MikeJ

How does the flow hive fit into natural beekeeping? Is it small cell?

Also - unless one is using a queen excluder, how do you ensure no brood makes it into those cells?

With the repeated need of the bees to repair the wax (after cracking the cells to drain honey) - don't the cells eventually thicken (I wouldn't see the bees being able to keep the walls as thin as a first drawing would be - they do not appear to do so elsewhere)?


----------



## cfalls

Here's my experience report. I have two flow supers but otherwise no flow hives.

I started with nuc colonies in spring of last year ('18). All three colonies built into two standard 10-frame deep brood chambers. By summer, two of the three built up enough to need a super. First I tried a shallow Hogg comb honey super, which they refused to use, and I gave up on it. Then I tried the Flow supers. At first they were reluctant to use them, but once I rubbed some wax on them and sprayed a little honey/lemongrass/water mix into the cells, they started working them. I don't know if this rain dance helped or if it just took more time and a good flow, but anyway, the cells started filling.

In the fall it was a little awkward because all the flow frames had some capped and some uncapped honey. I extracted the best frames and the honey was a little moist, like 20% water. But ok, I'm not trying to sell it, and so far it hasn't fermented. The extraction process itself was pretty much as advertised, so kudos on that. Some bees drowned in the jar, some honey spilled into the hive, and generally the process was a little messy, but still easier than dealing with an extractor, in my opinion. If I had 50 hives, sure, an extractor would be way easier, but with just 3, the flow supers were pretty ideal.

Overwintering was a bit awkward, too. I wanted to leave them enough honey, but much of it was in the flow frames, and I didn't want the queen to lay in those frames. I couldn't just leave the super on above an excluder because the bees might move up and leave the queen below. So, I removed the flow supers. If the hives get light before the spring flow I guess I'll extract and feed. But it's annoying that even though I'm using all deep hive bodies, my frames still aren't totally interchangeable because I'd like to avoid larvae in the flow frames. I probably wouldn't worry about that with "normal" frames.

Maybe this is too obvious to mention, but the claims that flow supers allow you to avoid disturbing the bees are something between irrelevant and utter nonsense. Most of the disturbance is checking that the colony is queenright, applying varroa treatments, and stuff like that. Sure, one disturbance per year is stealing the honey, but even with the flow supers you need to pull out the frame and check that it's mostly capped before extracting. So if you go into it thinking this is a real advantage, you have no idea what beekeeping is about.

But ok, whatever. As long as you go into it knowing that a flow super is nothing more than a slightly easier way to extract for backyard beekeepers, with some slight downsides with respect to interchangeability of frames, I think you'll get what you expect. The product does basically work as advertised, in my experience.


----------



## Eddie Honey

Can you post this here? https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/north-east-usa-ladies-gentlemen-start-your-engines/10049 We're trying to get regional feedback: thanks


----------



## clong

I put the Flowhive on again this year. I installed it on top of a 3-box 8 frame medium hive. At first, the bees didn't seem to be taking to it, so I swapped it with box 3 of the brood chamber. From the bottom, the boxes were brood, brood, FLOW, brood. The bees proceeded to fill up the Flow frames.

Upon inspection, I found that the queen had been in the top box laying it up. The bees left room for brood in the center two frames of the Flowhive. Over the last couple days, the bees have started to backfill the "brood chamber".


----------



## Michael Bush

> How does the flow hive fit into natural beekeeping? Is it small cell?


It is too big for worker comb and too deep for drone comb. I have never had any brood raised in it.



> Also - unless one is using a queen excluder, how do you ensure no brood makes it into those cells?


See above. I do not use an excluder.



> With the repeated need of the bees to repair the wax (after cracking the cells to drain honey) - don't the cells eventually thicken (I wouldn't see the bees being able to keep the walls as thin as a first drawing would be - they do not appear to do so elsewhere)?


I have not observed any of that. The bees fix the walls and fill them with honey. Like any super they only really work when there is a flow, but on a flow they fill them like any other fully drawn plastic comb...


----------

