The Flow Hive has gotten a lot of attention since the developers produced a crowd funding initiative, raising $13,247,863 by April 20, 2015, from 38,458 “backers.” What are we to conclude from this honey bee hive that now costs $699 plus $49 shipping? There hasn’t been a lot of buzz about it recently, although the program was extended through August of 2016. Incredibly the second fund raiser at Indiegogo now sports $14,959,087 USD by 40,493 backers.
Contributor Jim Fischer of Fischer’s Bee-Quick® and the Nectar-Detector®, who created the Wall of Shame, a satirical expose of food companies that print ‘Honey” in large print on their label, but put almost no actual product in the box, as revealed in their ingredients lists, takes a look at the “Flow Hive Brood Check,” concluding on the Bee-L Discussion list February 7, 2016, “They blow it right off the bat.” Read his running commentary about this video:
At 50 seconds, the young lady says “How long has it been since we peeked
inside? It’s been a… couple months now?” The Flow Hive fellow replies “Yeah…
At 3 minutes, the fellow pulls out one of the Flow frames, and says “So
this one did have a bit of burr comb because we had the other combs beside
it,” admitting that there is a basic bee space issue when mixing frames in
the same box.
At the start, the young lady asks if she is being a “responsible beekeeper”
by approaching a hive without gloves.
Not sure what to make of that statement, nor am I sure what to make of the
Flow Hive “expert” working a hive in gloves, when it is not one of 50 to
work that day, AND in gloves that are clearly far too large for him.
The gloves alone make one wonder how long have these people have _actually_
been keeping bees.
Starting at 7:20, it gets very surreal:
a) A smoker is puffed, although it has clearly gone out. Perhaps time was
short, and they did not want to stop and light the smoker to reshoot.
b) Bees on the outside surface of the hive are brushed with a glove up onto
the top bars and edges where a queen excluder will soon be placed, rather
than being left alone to reenter the hive themselves.
c) Then the smoker is again used, despite still being out, apparently to
“smoke” bees off the edges of the box where the queen excluder is about to
go… should we take up a collection to buy the poor fellow a brush?
d) But after all that prep, the queen excluder is slapped on without
clearing bees out of the way, you can see it being used to shove bees of the
top surface of the box closest to the camera.
e) Then the honey super is replaced, and the frames of honey are then
returned to the box – but wait a sec – open frames of honey were left just
sitting there exposed for the entire inspection?
f) At 7:40, a bunch of LEAVES is being used as a “brush”. Yes, the poor
fellow cannot afford a brush. Perhaps another kickstarter fundraising
project is in order here…
g) But at least someone re-lit the smoker!
So, I’ll ask again – how much beekeeping have these Flow hive guys REALLY
done?
Thanks to Jim for his efforts. Meanwhile we all wait for further confirmation that the Flow Hive is truly at the end of every beekeeper’s rainbow.
Here’s what contributor Randy Oliver published is his blog August 23, 2016:
The “Flow Hive”
In recent months there has been a great deal of buzz about the “Flow Hive,” developed by a father/son team of Australian beekeepers. The device consists of an arrangement of molded plastic parts that act as foundation upon which the bees build honey combs, but which can then be shifted by the turn of a handle to break open the cells of ripe honey and allow it to drain out of the hive through tubes. Although innovative, it is similar to a patent from 1939 (http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2223561.pdf).
The Flow Hive is likely the most well-funded beekeeping device ever brought to market, due to its inventors incredible media-savvy marketing via crowd sourcing on the internet. By means of producing brilliant and compelling fundraising videos, they have raised enough money to bring their product to market. Kudos to them!
I suspect that much of their funding has come from non beekeepers, who have always been fascinated by the promise of hive from which liquid honey could be directly taken without the need for actually handling bees.
The question regarding the Flow Hive is whether it will turn out to be practical, especially with regard to cost and whether it will stand up to repeated use. Longtime beekeepers tend to be skeptical, since we’ve seen so many beekeeping inventions come and go over the years.
But who knows? I’m as eager as anyone to see whether the Flow Hive proves to be a revolution in beekeeping. We’ll see once the completed hives get delivered to buyers. I wish the developers the best of luck. Only time will tell whether the device actually flies or flops. Finally, a recent article looks at the Flow Hive as something that “takes the beehive and reduces it into a beer keg.” It’s animal husbandry with a negative twist. Basically, it looks like the final story of this new kind of hive has yet to be told.
