I've had a Flow Hive for four years and make sure that the Flow hive is above another super that the bees first fill and can use to survive over the winter. I've had wonderful honey from the Flow hive and it is so simple to harvest without disturbing the colony. I added tubing to the Flow connection tube so the honey is totally enclosed as it come from the hive and there are no yellow jackets or robbers getting into it. I have a traditional Langstroth hive as well but believe the Flow hive is easier to manage and I've been very satisfied with it.
I can't pick it up when it's full, the burr comb they build under the flow frames makes removing it a nightmare too when I need to inspect, which is about every 3 weeks. Harvesting before inspecting that often is impractical. I don't personally think it's that amazing of a tool and have grown to LOVE keeping bees horizontally.
@@user00404 it's not exposed to light inside the colony and they keep their hives pretty cool aside from the brood nest. I'm not sure what material would be an improvement
It is best if you wait until 80-90% of the Flow frames are full and capped over by the bees before harvesting the honey. When the cells are capped over, then the moisture content should be low enough to harvest. If you are getting an overflow of honey into the hive, We recommend that instead of trying to harvest the entire frame at once, try harvesting about a third of the frame at a time. When the honey flow has reduced a fair amount, then push the Flow Key in another third and harvest. Repeat the same procedure until you harvest the last third of the frame. (You can harvest just a portion of the frame at a time). When finished you can reset the entire frame all at the same time. This should nearly eliminate any honey over flow. When resetting the flow frames after harvesting, try leaving the flow Key in the vertical position for a minute of two so that all the cells will re-align before removing the Flow Key. Hope this will help. Chuck, SE Ariz, U.S. Flow Ambassador.
The capping also helps hold in the honey as it flows down into the channel below. Without cappings the backlog of honey has nowhere to go but out the side. The time of year we needed to harvest honey made it so the bees were not able to cap things over before the Super had to come off for winter. Waiting would have been ideal but was not possible. Removing the flow super to harvest inside the house was the right choice.
@@SageandStoneHomestead Could've maybe removed the queen excluder and waited it out, larvae would eventually have hatched and you'd be able to harvest pure capped honey afterwards
My name is Nancy Lee from Pemberton NJ and I have been watching you and Flow Hive from Australia for several years prior to my son surprise me with the best Flow Hive for my birthday. We used Eco Wood to treat the cedar wood from watching your video. We picked up the bees May 1st 2022 for my Flow Hive. I am very excited to have my family of bees. Well that excitement lasted only a few days. We had May showers on & off for a few days. Everyday I would go to look at the hive and bees and I noticed the brood box has a horizontal crack from one end to the other hand. The 2 triangle roof pieces of cedar is damaged from being outside only for a couple of days. I was literally in shock having my son spend soo my to getting his mom the best. Contacted the company about the damage, sent them several detailed photos and they told my son this happened because we used Eco Wood and refused to stand behind their product. The love of their product and the bees became such a heartbreak and disappointment. I have spent several months dealing with this and all I'm getting runaround and they have no intention of replacing their overpriced product. Fredrick Dunn is a podcaster from North PA who has 124K Subscribers to almost 1000 videos. This is the 1st comment that I have posted and I will do it with every single one online since you don't stand behind your overpriced garbage.
Hi Nancy! We like you are backyard beekeepers with the flow hive product. We are not affiliated with the makers in any way and had our own hiccups with the Flow Hive but a lot of that was inexperience and user error. I made this video to show that the system can be a little finicky but overall I like it and will keep using it. I sincerely hope they hear you though and do their best to make it right.
@@SageandStoneHomesteadThank you for your reply. My present from my son was 7 frame Cedar Flow Hive 2 over THOUSAND DOLLARS that went outside MAY 22 in MILD WEATHER of NEW JERSEY with few days of spring showers on & off. One of the reason paying for Cedar was that it would last longer. However, our brood box has split apart from one end to the other and 2 triangle part of the roof was splitting. ALL this within just few days, less than 2 weeks outside. This company blamed me for causing this by using Eco Wood treatment rather than using a natural wood for Cedar wood, literally calling me stupid. This company does NOT stand behind their product. Leaving me with a overpriced crap. At this point, rather than having a beautiful bee hive in my yard with my beautiful flowers & fruit trees (I planted them for my beautiful honey bees) I have this ugly brood box with shiny water proof caulking from one end to the other side. Also, the brood box has honey and nothing , there are flowers every day from early spring until the late fall here. My house is on the lake with water lilies, golden rods everywhere, flowers in my yard, flowers in my veg garden and flowering frees everywhere. Also, Fred Dunn stated that the Eco Wood does NOT dry Cedar. So at this point, I ended up with a overpriced broken Cedar Flow Hive.
@@SageandStoneHomestead Fred Dunn used Eco Wood on his Flow Hives and his reply was that Eco Wood wouldn't damage the Cedar. Also, if it was Eco Wood (you might want to read about Eco Wood) wouldn't you think that it would take longer than a few days of MILD spring few days of May?
When I was young, I hated the taste of Honey, now that I am much older, I love it and I am thinking of starting out in the bee keeping industry. I've been trying to learn a lot, but the learning never stops. Thanks for your learned wisdom.
I'm an old time beekeeper and have been using flow supers in Texas for several years. The problem with the overflow out the cells is that the draining trough is full and overflowing. You can see this in the video. The way that the trough overflows is out the cells. This will happen when the whole full frame is opened at one time and the trough can't handle all the honey. To solve this is to open only a third or fourth of the frame, let it drain, then the next third, etc. I keep my bees in double deeps and only put a flow super on for the honey flow. After I drain, I take it off for the winter. You should never do a hive inspection during the honey flow and, therefore, should never need to lift a full flow super.
New subscriber! Thank you, I've been thinking of getting a Flow hive (I've never tended bees before) anyway, thank you for your assessment & I look forward to seeing more!
Welcome to the channel! We are done opening the bees up until about March, but excited about this coming year keeping bees! We switched to Langstroth Long hives.
I love the Flow HIve and I haven't had any of the negative issues that you mentioned. It is best to wait until the flow frame is mostly capped before extracting, but if you just key open a 1/4 to 1/3 at once then you should not have much if any overflow. You can do all your brood box inspections prior to the nectar flow, so you don't need to remove a full and heavy Flow super, or extract the honey so it's not so heavy, then do your inspection. Timing is everything! Use the Flow HIve only for honey extraction and keep a separate traditional Langstroth if you want beeswax, comb or to distribute honey frames to other hives that need some extra resources for winter. In a colder, northern climate you can and should remove the Flow Super after extraction and allowing the bees to tidy up. If there is still some nectar flow then you can put a standard honey super on the hive and then leave it for the winter, or condense your hive as needed at the end of season. If you think the brood box is full and the queen has not enough space for egg laying then add another brood box before adding the Flow Super. I would suggest watching videos by Frederick Dunn and how he manages his Flow HIves in a northern climate. He has great success. My experience has all been positive and I find it amazingly easy to harvest honey and keep my hives happy. But I think many new beekeepers see the Flow HIve in action in a warm Australia and expect their experience to be the same. It looks so easy. And it is if you understand how to manage it in your location.
I love Frederick Dunn! Here the flow comes on in early March and doesn't quit until October when we get a freeze. There is no summer dearth and so we must inspect and treat for mites during some kind of flow. I think I've learned here that this system needs to be pulled before goldenrod blooms to ensure the frames have time to be harvested before nectar flow stops and there's no season left for them to cap. I plan to do inspections after St Patrick's day here and put the flow Super on to catch the full spring flow this year.
Great video Heather!! I have learned so much from your channel about a variety of different things. Beekeeping is still very intimidating to me but hats off to you! It's hard to believe this is only your second year with the bees, you have a wealth of knowledge and are a great teacher!!! Best wishes as you prepare your hives for winter!! Stay safe!!!
Thank you so much Cindy, I've read a few books where old beekeepers say they never stop learning about bees and that's why they love them so much. They are really amazing creatures!♡♡
Fantastic video. We saw you guys live on Old Swedes Farm the other night and are glad we did. Bees are something that we have been back and forth on numerous times for our homestead and to be honest I (Steph) thought the flow hive was a great option. So glad that we watched this video as it has answered many questions that we didn't even know we had.
Been using flow hives for a few years. The flow needs to be harvested in place with the slow backwards for honey to flow and the bees are keeping it warm so it flows. Only open a quarter of a frame to harvest at a time. Live in a cold part of Australia.
We had it tilted back. But we opened all at once. It should be fine if fully capped. Mine was not but they were not going to cap it at that point in the year.
Agreed!! Had my 1st harvest this fall. Absolutely EVERYTHING you said is truth!! Harvesting is A Heavy mess and discouraged me from inspections. I harvested inside for the same reasons.
i've heard that after your first harvest from those things, they never go back into proper alinement fully again. sooo good luck with that. can't wait till you go horizontal! neighboring ranch did, and the bee keeper there keeps asking "why didn't i do that sooner?" apparently lot less back pain!
I took beekeeping classes back in 2015-16. Ann Harman was my teacher, but she passed in 2020. I also took a few classes from Spikenard Bee Sanctuary in VA. That was an amazing class. I am really wanting to get back into bees, but I feel as though I forgot everything already. LOL First step is to clean up my hives. Then we will decide what is best.
If you live where you get cold winters I would remove the flow hive every fall and harvest into a large pan and then clean all crazy comb that is attached and then freeze the flow frames until spring.
Great video and great info! I've learned a lot from you this season. I'm hoping we have some bees in the next couple years. Thanks for sharing everything! Cheers!
Great review! I find your logical, in-depth information invaluable and even though I’m a relatively newer subscriber, your opinions have become much more heavily weighted in my decision making than other creators.
Very cool! One day we'll get bees if not just to pollinate our garden and the honey as a bonus! Still so afraid of doing something wrong and killing the colony!
It does happen, but if you think about it... there's a good chance that you'll have colonies survive too that ordinarily wouldn't without your help. Bees can live in the wild but the vast majority of wild colonies do not survive winter.
I lost one colony this year already but we grew from 4 to 9 and we are at 7 now because the one was lost due to queen failure and I combined 2 other colonies. We are still up 3!
This video is perfect. We just did the same thing last night and had the exact same experience. Luckily, we brought it in the house to extract the honey as we were taking it off to winterize the bees!! I'm so glad I found your video. Subscribed and followed as this is our first year bee keeping. We have two 8 frame regular boxes and the flow hive. We got 45 lbs between last month and last night of honey. We left about 50 lbs for them for over winter. I'm not sure what they'll need, so we put in protein packs and will put in a candy tray full of sugar with a feeding box filled with shavings for moisture control and insulation. I'm not sure how they get water over winter. We are still learning, with so much more to learn. lol ❤
We don't have to because we have a pond that stays unfrozen on the days they are flying. I don't feed in-hive at all. My feeding station is pretty far away from the colonies and they come get it on days it's warm enough to fly
They will drink the condensation that builds up in the box too. Our inner covers are concaved so the condensation is routed to the walls of the hive instead of dripping on the bees, they will drink from the walls when not flying.
The flow hive is a Miracle for honey harvesting! It is Good for the beekeeper because of the ease of harvesting the honey. No removal of supers, no decaping the cells, no spinning frames in a centrifuge. When it's ready, just twist the lever on the frames and the honey starts flowing. After harvesting is complete, restore (untwist) the frames and plug the access port. Very simple. For the bees, as stated already, it is very non invasive because you don't have to remove the supers, so the bees are WAY less stressed! After harvesting, the bees will simply refill the emptied cells with honey and recap them, just as they've been doing all summer. Flowhive is MUCH MUCH better than a angstrom hive, where you have to severely stress the bees by breaking open their hive, Smoking them into a stupor, removing part of their home, then closing it up again. And you STILL have to extract the honey by hand in a long, messy process. Flowhive is SO MUCH better!
Are you beekeeper or you're seller of the flowhives? I read that people were saying that when you rotate the key it kills some bees and some cells not closing properly what could have happened with the flowhive of that lady. If that was saw good why the beekeepers not using them? I have not heard anyone of people who had beehives using them. People just use regular beehives. The lady also many times said that in some other things the regular behive is easier to manage. Considering its price 8-10 times more than langstroth I just do not get why I need replacing one problems with other for lots of money?
@@alexk6745 are you commenting at someone I cannot see? Maybe they have me blocked? I just see my comments and yours and we agree that it’s not worth the price.
Hi Heather. I live in Stanthorpe QLD, Australia. Google the town and Snow. Many places in Australia experience winters. Many hives around here. But not many flow hives! Hope that info is of value. 😊
Thank you for this very honest review of the Flow-style hive. All your points are well-thought out and make lots of sense to me. I have been researching all kinds of hives and honey collection, as well as making long lists of equipment and costs. Whereas the Flow-style hive is supposed to reduce certain workload and equipment needed to be a beekeeper, it is not the "end-all, bee all" (see what I did there? lol) for a complete system.
Haha I do see what you did there! Yes the flow hive is nice but it can't replace the standard bee equipment. It's a great novelty addition to an apiary though!
There is so much to know about bees and beekeeping! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Flow system. Looks like a neat gadget but there are definite limitations in the design.
I have never kept bees myself & probably never will but I’ve been learning so much about them & I thought this might be helpful for someone: I heard Queen excluders can wear away at the wings of your workers & shorten their lives because they can’t fly well. That said I get why you’d use one, capped homey in a comb that once had brood in it doesn’t look great. The honey will be just fine but it affects the colour of your wax & it’s a less premium product after that. Also if you don’t use the flow hives you can go with the traditional Langstroth hives with plastic or wax foundation. Unfortunately that means that you can’t cut honey in the comb. You can charge $7 for a piece of spring honeycomb so it depends on your customer base if that’s worth trying for yourself. They make honeycomb frames that have no wire supports or foundation & it will fit your hive boxes like any other frame. You can only do this with a very strong colony because they have to start from scratch in that kind of honey super. They need enough honey to be able to create completely fresh comb & it takes 7 pounds of honey to make 1 pound of wax. If you’re feeding your bees in a dirth, there’s nothing better for a bee’s health than honey (You’ll get it back eventually)
If your flow frame is leaking like that it means your wires are to loose, just pop the wire off on one end and put one more twist in and replace, also if you need only a small adjustment the wires have two notches it can sit in just leaver it into the upper notch. You shouldn't need to pull it apart to correct the deviances just put the tool in the close position and turn keeping it that way for a few minutes until the peices have reseated. If you go to the flowhive channel on you tube they go through q&a once a month when they do their inspections and you can ask for trouble shooting tips live. Or just watch their back catalog where they have answered those questions regularly, although the comb building on the underside is a new one on me. I have been watching the flowhive channel for years and am now in the process of buying a flow hive now that my brother has a property it can go on with a already available bee tree that needs removing..
I will definitely do that to adjust the frame that seems out of alignment, thank you!! The frame only leaks when harvesting and as you can see in the video it flows out over the side of the frame when the honey backs up in the channel and has nowhere else to go. That's why waiting until it's fully capped is important, and that's a tricky game in the fall. I'll look at the wires but it's definitely leaking because of the lack of capping as well. And that's not the fault of the frame itself.
@@SageandStoneHomestead yes it is a known problem when harvesting because the channel the honey flows through is not tight as it is not a single tube but multiple peices lined up to make a tube if they are not tightly sealed it does leak. This mostly happens on the first harvest and when the bees notice the leak they will propeilize and if it happens in subsequent harvests then make the adjustments to the wire.
I could see that!! Did you see the backflow of honey spilling over where the cells were uncapped? That's where most of the honeyleaked from when I harvested.
@@SageandStoneHomestead oh I see what you mean the honey from the upper layers as they were leaking down had nothing to stop it from spilling out, only way to stop that is leaving a little longer before harvesting so the bees have time to seal it up, if you are unsure if it's ready just take the frame you plan on harvesting out to check it, sometimes if there is a dirth of nectar the bees will eat out the centre of the frame if this happens you'll loose most of the honey to spillage, because it'll just flow out the uncapped cells.
Right it's just an excessive amount of space so there is way more comb than with regular langstroth frames that have better bee spacing. It's hard as hell to pry them off.
Great review of the flow frame, right on the mark of its pros and cons. Well done. I have 4 flow frames and love them but would never recommend having more than 3-4, (2 or 3 would be more realistic), definitely a small backyard beekeeper hive (super). Only comment I have is when you harvested the frame out of the box it seemed the frame was level instead of tilted 5 degrees and the entire frame was opened instead of 1/4, or less, at a time. The bottom receiving tube should never be more than 1/2 full while harvesting. I have harvested partially capped frames with very little loss into the hive but one needs to be patient.
Patience is not one of my strong suits!! I actually had the whole colony tilted backward, there is a piece of wood out there I use, it is an inch wide so it is more than 5 degrees back but maybe that is part of the issue too. Thanks so much!!
It would’ve helped to keep the honey from dripping down if #1 is was properly sloped to flow out the tube and #2 if you only drained 1/2 of the frame at a time.
It would happen regardless because of the lack of capping. The super was sloped for sure. You can see where the box has a gap in it where we shimmed it up for an angle. There needs to be a wall of capping to handle the overflow. Half the super is still a quart and a quart of 17% moisture honey takes a bit to flow out the honey channel. There's several variables to consider which is why I made the video.
I would definitely suggest you get in contact with your local beekeeping association!! They will be your best support system and they'll be able to let you know all the ins and outs of beekeeping in your area!! Definitely soak up all the knowledge that you can and adapt what sounds best to you to fit your region. From what I hear, a caught swarm are the best bees to start with. ♡♡
The biggest problem for me is the spacing issues between the flow frames and the top of the frames In the bottom box causing them to create a lot of extra comb that really makes getting the flow super off incredibly difficult. On top of that it is very heavy with minimal space as handles and it's just not enjoyable to work with. Not worth the hassle for a fun way to collect honey.
I decided awhile ago I'd never get a flow hive. It's a big investment for something that will eventually just deteriorate and break, since it's made of plastic. It might work great the first few years, but tell me how it works 10 years from now when heat and UV like have beaten it down in the sun. There are many shady rip-offs these days on the market, so I'm sure a lot of new beekeepers are getting duped spending hundreds of dollars for junk.
I'll keep you posted! I will say the plastic parts on the name brand flowhive are covered with the exterior Super and very rarely see the sun. It's a costly purchase though you're right, and maybe isn't worth it.
This is amazing information, there is no other way but to try different methods to find the one you like better. I'm nowhere near getting bees at this point, but excited to learn a lot about them before we actually start. I'm keeping all these bee videos on a playlist to refer back to them There's a lot of small projects to perfect the systems we have with the ducks and goats, to keep them more comfortable and easier to do chores in the morning, before we decide to add a new animal/project =D In my list next is rabbit and chickens ( meat ones) but I first need to process 5 drakes that we have, we are only keeping 9 girls and 1 drake ( one of the ducklings that is very sweet and mellow ) I'm kind of over weird and skittish drakes, they are going to end up being raccoon food becauuse they don't want to go in the shelter at night. So I better put them in the freezer before that happens. Have you processes duck? Is it too old to process a 2 year old one? I want to start doing it at the 51 day mark from now on for better meat quality but at this point is a question of numbers and as an introduction before I get rabbits and meat chickens. Any advice on the duck processing is highly appreciated, I've been watching processing videos non stop! Much love to you and your family friend! Lety
I have never processed a duck!!! I gave my ducks away to my sister in law because we didn't even really like the eggs. The ducks I had were from a friend who had to rehome all her farm animals quickly and she had nowhere for the ducks to go. (I bought her goats, my original LaMancha).
@@SageandStoneHomestead Wow! We love the eggs around here and that is why we haven't really wanted to get chickens! Isn't that crazy? Hopefully your sister in law likes the eggs better! Thanks Heather
Have you tried running a flow hive honey box (underneath) a brood box ? The bees don't care and it will make working (inspecting) etc. in the brood box a lot easier but you will need to put a bottom board below the flow box and still use a Queen Excluder between the boxes. Also will allow you to add a 2nd brood box on top if you need to create room for overcrowding.
That is not a good idea because it would put the valuable food right at the entrance, resulting in a weak defense against robbing for example. Bees like to keep their food away from the entrance because of that.
Wouldn't just adding another brood box solve the swarming problem? If it's a matter of space to expand you should be able to just stack another box. With regards to the separation of the queen from the superbox, as far as I understand it, the worker bees are always tending to the queen, they should never leave her and they should always bring her the food she needs (from the superbox), so not sure why they'd leave the broodbox, where the queen and brood are, to go the superbox even if it's where the food reserves are stored. I was under the impression the bulk of the hive is always at and around the brood hives specifically to keep it at temperature especially at winter, and that's where the queen would be too. Or am I mistaken?
The hive moves 1mm per day into their food storage in cold weather and the queen outside of the cluster will freeze. Colonies have been known to die inches away from food because if they get too cold they can't move the cluster up fast enough to get food. Adding another brood box does not always prevent swarming, though I can't remember why I talked about swarming in this video. The flow hive super gets really heavy and that's part of the problem of dealing with it to add on new boxes. It gets heavier than a regular deep box when full which is 100 lbs.
That was the great video. Thanks for that. It confirmed my thought that it is a waste of money. Many thanks for letting me know about the thing which I did not know that excluder must be removed for the winter. I really do not wanna let queen go up into super. e have mild winters with average night temperature 0. Can I swap super and brrod for the winter so that super is below brood box and separated with excluder? It seems logical, even if bees go down for honey the worm aire will be going up and queen most likely will be ok. You also made a good statement that it costs like an extractor which very useful. I was not sure if I ever buy an extractor as I basically initially was thinking I will have only 2 beehives. But I start to think I may have 3 or 4 but very unlikely. Not sure if it worth buying extractor just for 2-4 beehives and I was not planning to sell the honey just mainly honey for us and bee products like royal jelly, bee bread, drone homogenate, propolis.
No excluder at all over winter you want the queen to be able to freely move with the cluster. In about 50f range the bees have a hard time moving at all and sometimes will die even if close to food because their muscles won't work in that temp. The tight cluster of winter bees is where the warmth is and how they are able to move about. Many people take off the super entirely over winter and the bees are fed sugar on the top of the frames.
So, I live in Georgia. This is literally day 1 of me considering beekeeping. I just want one hive. I just want to have some bees on our property to pollenate and also take care of such a complex species. I do have some questions. With the whole removing the super for winter, is there a lid that goes on the brood chamber or boxes? We get about two weeks every year flirting in the 20’s. I just want to know the best way to protect them during the winter. How do you make sure the queen survives?
I think it's smart to keep two hives because queens are delicate and things happen. You want to have a second hive to pull from if your main colony needs anything like eggs to make a new queen with. Right now is a good time to learn about beekeeping before spring (in the US), I suggest following Frederick Dunn. He has so much awesome advice for beginners.
Thanks for your video. I’m a new residential bee keeper and Flow hive owner in a dry, warmer Southern California climate. Our winters are probably milder and shorter than where you are now. I was wondering, Why not stack another Langstrom frame on top of the first BEFORE putting the flow super on, to allow your colony and queen to be stronger and warmer in the winter? Would this allow you to use the queen excluder without worrying about the queen or would this make the hive too large? Obviously this would take longer and if your seasons are short this could be difficult. Just wondering if that would work…?
I can't recall if you can really see it in this video well but this particular colony is a deep and a half as far as brood goes. So when they condense the cluster down for winter they do actually only occupy the bottom box but fill up that medim super with honey (backfill) and that's their winter feed. They do really well with that! Problem is, as they eat upward through that honey over the winter they could very well end up in the flow Super and that would be a big headache. So we pull it off as recommended! ♥
It still needs to come off over winter with the queen excluder. No matter how many boxes are beneath it. The queen laying in the flow frames presents problems.
Why don’t you just take the supers off and leave the bee boxes with the queen then you won’t have a queen laying in the super also you could reduce the entrance size of the landing and wrap the bottom boxes with insulation and leave the supers open so they are cold to force the bees to winter in the bottom and face the bees away from the wind to keep it warmer also you could put a flood light facing the bottom box say like your trying to save a well or plant this will also encourage the bees to stay in the bottom without ever having to remove the queen extruder
I'm not sure what you mean by capping it flow in winter? The flow is off during winter and will be put on in spring, soon! Really excited to use it again.
@@SageandStoneHomestead well, you mentioned in your video that if you put the separation netting deal (that looks like a fence for bees) so the queen can’t pass to the other levels but the worker bees do, it leaves the Queen be alone and therefore she may freeze during winter. If you hypothetically had a 3 story beehive and put a mesh of sorts to keep all the bees in level 1 and 2 and you had your Flow system on level 3, wouldn’t that solve the freeze issue? And then when the hotter months came around, would it be helpful to remove the blockade and place the little fence thing so the queen bee doesn’t move to the 3rd level but the worker bees could create the honey properly. Idk. Just curious if the idea is practical and would work. Also curious on if bee colonies are kept outdoors and they insulate themselves OR if moving them to a garage/ shed with an open window for ventilation would be better for them, idk. I guess, how do they survive the winter? Thanks!
Oh I see what you mean! That queen excluder has to come off over winter. It allows worker bees through but the queen can't make it through and you'll right, she will freeze if left behind. There isn't a way (as far as I know) to leave the Flow Super on over winter and keep the queen safe by allowing her access to all the boxes.
So I just got a flow super for my birthday. I have the queen excluder on. I'm getting ready to order bees. From my understanding, you remove your flow super from the hive and add a regular frame for winter?
We take the whole flow super off for winter, yes. The queen excluder needs to come off over winter and you don't want to have her laying up there. Unless the frames contain honey I wouldn't put anything in place of that flow super, we often condense the colonies down at that time.
@SageandStoneHomestead understood. Thank you. I'm a new bee keeper. I have a 1 regular hive and now the flow hive. Do you think it's a good idea to ventilate the hives by drilling a hole at the top. I see some people doing so?
I don't feel like it's a beginner piece. I don't like the amount of comb the bees build under it, there is too much space under the flow frames. It seems super fussy despite marketing it as an easy way to collect honey, you still need to do heavy lifting and all of that. It just isn't marketed well and I think it's fine but it won't replace conventional beekeeping or honey collection. It's just not feasible at scale. I don't like that you can't offer the honey back to the bees for winter and you can't use the frames to bolster a swarm catch or a split. It's just only relatively good at only one function and just using regular frames makes beekeeping easier and more flexible. It's self limiting. I don't dislike it, but I don't think it's world- changing..
@@SageandStoneHomestead I understand better now thank you. I guess it depends on the person I don't mind taking some time to build the Flow Hive because I love Bee's and using their powers. I don't have equipment at the moment, god willing I should have some by next year I don't have any experience as of now.. As for the winter see if you can stop the harvest before it gets too cold. I'm not worried about the Bee's they have 2 months to get it together and 2 months only.
As of July 2024 this hive costs about $1,000 which is equivalent to about 250 lbs of honey at supermarket prices. I don’t know if this hive will be able to generate this much honey over its lifetime, but I’m pretty sure no human being will be able to consume that much honey. What’s the point? What am I missing?
I don't think you're missing anything, personally!! We do not use ours anymore and have switched to keeping in long langstroth hives. The money is better spent on nice processing equipment like an extractor and Hive Butler Totes. Because even if heavy-lifting is hard for you, this super is ridiculously heavy when full of honey and it is not practical to drain it of honey before each inspection.
It all depends on how much you already have. I’m looking at getting my first hive in the spring. So I don’t have anything. If you look at the cost of a regular hive made out of cedar with a similar stand and all the equipment needed to harvest the honey the price is pretty comparable. If you don’t care what type of wood the hive is made from and have access to the harvesting equipment then it’s a different story.
@@lvthunder our first harvest we did a crush and strain. Arguably an extractor is just not necessary but it's nice if you'd like to have access to drawn comb.
@@lvthunder It all depends on how many hives you want to end up with. As a hobbyist with 3-5 hives, the Flow Hive still is an interesting option. If you plan to have more hives, the costs per hive will make the difference. Because you only need the extraction equipment once.
OK so the flow hive doesn't sound like it's good for a beginner at all then. It sounds like an add on for someone who already knows how to bee keep with a lot of ways to screw it up. I noticed another commenter say that this thing would crush the larvae and now I know there shouldn't be larvae in there. I'm starting off with 2x4 squares laid flat and layers of plywood between them. Holes drilled in the sides. If bees move in, great. I'm not going beyond that.
??? flowhive never communicated this tru the manual or other??? thats unacceptable! they must know about this very common problem. its not common to the extent you experienced but still quite common.
They suggest it be fully capped but don't explain that it's for more than just the honey and how well it's cured, the cappings function to hold the honey in a downward column to not allow it to flow over the sides. I've not heard them mention this, no. But, they do suggest opening the frames partially at first so they don't back honey up through the tube, so I'll be trying that soon.
It's gotta be (was so tempted to write "gotta bee") but the restriction is so broad I can't figure out why. Couldn't find any site that would ship to this dang state. @@SageandStoneHomestead
When u sum everything it is not worth it. Nature of bees are perfect already, we dont need to change it. Also you will save all of that wax so you can make new wax basis, candles, balsams. With standard frames you can change their place whereever is needed. Not to mention that Flow system can stack, and that is a mess than. For presentation and honey extraxtion it is good, but it is not practical in terms of beekeeping, which is the core of honeymaking. Any hive must be observed with care in order to be successful beekeeper. And if u want more aesthetics for your backyard, simply make more beautifull standart LR hives with fancy roof, dont need to spent all that money for flow system. It is better to use that money to buy some woodworking tools and make hives and frames alone, where you will learn more skills for life.
Couple things, in response to your comment. 1) It seems that this company doesn't have alot of experience with beekeeping beyond that of its founder, going so far as to render some really bad advice to new customers 2) while the flow hive might be able to catch up with easier harvesting, it's worth noting that their classic configuration is 25% less space efficient than a trading langstroth hive. 3)If someone wanted to go with this company, the "hybrid" configuration is probably the best since it only has three flow frames and requires 4 traditional frames that have to be removed to harvest. However, the way it is configured isn't conducive to checking them during harvesting, which can lead to lazy, incompetent, or inexperienced keepers to neglect them. I'd argue the only "good" thing about them is the fact that the hives have windows that can be used to check on them when disassembling them might not be necessary.
Very easy simple concept basic logic if life is not free why the hell would death be any cheaper it's not. So the question one may wonder is the spiritual cost to one's own soul and spirit for having lived and died only using the smallest percentage of A fraction of the true potential they were first born with equally as reckless neglectful at the same time to the lowest standards of quality for so many years now global pollution has diminished the quality of life to the point where today's people are living, dying and yielding the worst spiritual kickback that has ever been manifested since the beginning of life only getting worse. The polar opposite extreme to that is today's people should be living and dying to the highest standards of quality which would make each and every moment physically, mentally, financially and spiritually beneficial rewarding constantly consistently S.R.F.
I've had a Flow Hive for four years and make sure that the Flow hive is above another super that the bees first fill and can use to survive over the winter. I've had wonderful honey from the Flow hive and it is so simple to harvest without disturbing the colony. I added tubing to the Flow connection tube so the honey is totally enclosed as it come from the hive and there are no yellow jackets or robbers getting into it. I have a traditional Langstroth hive as well but believe the Flow hive is easier to manage and I've been very satisfied with it.
I can't pick it up when it's full, the burr comb they build under the flow frames makes removing it a nightmare too when I need to inspect, which is about every 3 weeks. Harvesting before inspecting that often is impractical. I don't personally think it's that amazing of a tool and have grown to LOVE keeping bees horizontally.
This is a great idea! I am going to try beekeeping next year.
my issue is it's made of plastic, and even food grade plastic starts leeching as it ages and is continually exposed to light and heat
@@user00404 it's not exposed to light inside the colony and they keep their hives pretty cool aside from the brood nest. I'm not sure what material would be an improvement
It is best if you wait until 80-90% of the Flow frames are full and capped over by the bees before harvesting the honey. When the cells are capped over, then the moisture content should be low enough to harvest. If you are getting an overflow of honey into the hive, We recommend that instead of trying to harvest the entire frame at once, try harvesting about a third of the frame at a time. When the honey flow has reduced a fair amount, then push the Flow Key in another third and harvest. Repeat the same procedure until you harvest the last third of the frame. (You can harvest just a portion of the frame at a time). When finished you can reset the entire frame all at the same time. This should nearly eliminate any honey over flow. When resetting the flow frames after harvesting, try leaving the flow Key in the vertical position for a minute of two so that all the cells will re-align before removing the Flow Key. Hope this will help.
Chuck, SE Ariz, U.S. Flow Ambassador.
The capping also helps hold in the honey as it flows down into the channel below. Without cappings the backlog of honey has nowhere to go but out the side. The time of year we needed to harvest honey made it so the bees were not able to cap things over before the Super had to come off for winter. Waiting would have been ideal but was not possible. Removing the flow super to harvest inside the house was the right choice.
@@SageandStoneHomestead Could've maybe removed the queen excluder and waited it out, larvae would eventually have hatched and you'd be able to harvest pure capped honey afterwards
My name is Nancy Lee from Pemberton NJ and I have been watching you and Flow Hive from Australia for several years prior to my son surprise me with the best Flow Hive for my birthday. We used Eco Wood to treat the cedar wood from watching your video.
We picked up the bees May 1st 2022 for my Flow Hive. I am very excited to have my family of bees. Well that excitement lasted only a few days. We had May showers on & off for a few days. Everyday I would go to look at the hive and bees and I noticed the brood box has a horizontal crack from one end to the other hand. The 2 triangle roof pieces of cedar is damaged from being outside only for a couple of days. I was literally in shock having my son spend soo my to getting his mom the best. Contacted the company about the damage, sent them several detailed photos and they told my son this happened because we used Eco Wood and refused to stand behind their product. The love of their product and the bees became such a heartbreak and disappointment.
I have spent several months dealing with this and all I'm getting runaround and they have no intention of replacing their
overpriced product.
Fredrick Dunn is a podcaster from North PA who has 124K Subscribers to almost 1000 videos. This is the 1st comment that I have posted and I will do it with every single one online since you don't stand behind your overpriced garbage.
Hi Nancy! We like you are backyard beekeepers with the flow hive product. We are not affiliated with the makers in any way and had our own hiccups with the Flow Hive but a lot of that was inexperience and user error. I made this video to show that the system can be a little finicky but overall I like it and will keep using it. I sincerely hope they hear you though and do their best to make it right.
@@SageandStoneHomesteadThank you for your reply. My present from my son was 7 frame Cedar Flow Hive 2 over THOUSAND DOLLARS that went outside MAY 22 in MILD WEATHER of NEW JERSEY with few days of spring showers on & off. One of the reason paying for Cedar was that it would last longer. However, our brood box has split apart from one end to the other and 2 triangle part of the roof was splitting. ALL this within just few days, less than 2 weeks outside. This company blamed me for causing this by using Eco Wood treatment rather than using a natural wood for Cedar wood, literally calling me stupid. This company does NOT stand behind their product. Leaving me with a overpriced crap. At this point, rather than having a beautiful bee hive in my yard with my beautiful flowers & fruit trees (I planted them for my beautiful honey bees) I have this ugly brood box with shiny water proof caulking from one end to the other side. Also, the brood box has honey and nothing , there are flowers every day from early spring until the late fall here. My house is on the lake with water lilies, golden rods everywhere, flowers in my yard, flowers in my veg garden and flowering frees everywhere.
Also, Fred Dunn stated that the Eco Wood does NOT dry Cedar.
So at this point, I ended up with a overpriced broken Cedar Flow Hive.
I am 99% sure I used some kind of linseed oil on mine. The roof I used outdoor paint. So far no breaking thankfully!
@@SageandStoneHomestead Fred Dunn used Eco Wood on his Flow Hives and his reply was that Eco Wood wouldn't damage the Cedar. Also, if it was Eco Wood (you might want to read about Eco Wood) wouldn't you think that it would take longer than a few days of MILD spring few days of May?
Definitely. Has Fredrick Dunn replied to you?
Wow. I was looking into these. Thank you for your honesty
Glad I could help!
Thank you for this. I had nearly convinced myself i was ready for this.
Now, not so much
"Regular" beekeeping is far easier.
When I was young, I hated the taste of Honey, now that I am much older, I love it and I am thinking of starting out in the bee keeping industry. I've been trying to learn a lot, but the learning never stops. Thanks for your learned wisdom.
This is actually really helpful, I've been trying to find detailed reviews of these flow hives. Thank you for being so detailed!!
I'm an old time beekeeper and have been using flow supers in Texas for several years. The problem with the overflow out the cells is that the draining trough is full and overflowing. You can see this in the video. The way that the trough overflows is out the cells. This will happen when the whole full frame is opened at one time and the trough can't handle all the honey. To solve this is to open only a third or fourth of the frame, let it drain, then the next third, etc.
I keep my bees in double deeps and only put a flow super on for the honey flow. After I drain, I take it off for the winter. You should never do a hive inspection during the honey flow and, therefore, should never need to lift a full flow super.
I was told to inspect every 3 weeks. We never have a summer derth so flow is April thru October.
I have seen people extract their honey from fully capped flow frames and they have leaked honey from the bottom, what causes this?
New subscriber! Thank you, I've been thinking of getting a Flow hive (I've never tended bees before) anyway, thank you for your assessment & I look forward to seeing more!
Welcome to the channel! We are done opening the bees up until about March, but excited about this coming year keeping bees! We switched to Langstroth Long hives.
I love the Flow HIve and I haven't had any of the negative issues that you mentioned. It is best to wait until the flow frame is mostly capped before extracting, but if you just key open a 1/4 to 1/3 at once then you should not have much if any overflow. You can do all your brood box inspections prior to the nectar flow, so you don't need to remove a full and heavy Flow super, or extract the honey so it's not so heavy, then do your inspection. Timing is everything! Use the Flow HIve only for honey extraction and keep a separate traditional Langstroth if you want beeswax, comb or to distribute honey frames to other hives that need some extra resources for winter. In a colder, northern climate you can and should remove the Flow Super after extraction and allowing the bees to tidy up. If there is still some nectar flow then you can put a standard honey super on the hive and then leave it for the winter, or condense your hive as needed at the end of season. If you think the brood box is full and the queen has not enough space for egg laying then add another brood box before adding the Flow Super. I would suggest watching videos by Frederick Dunn and how he manages his Flow HIves in a northern climate. He has great success. My experience has all been positive and I find it amazingly easy to harvest honey and keep my hives happy. But I think many new beekeepers see the Flow HIve in action in a warm Australia and expect their experience to be the same. It looks so easy. And it is if you understand how to manage it in your location.
I love Frederick Dunn! Here the flow comes on in early March and doesn't quit until October when we get a freeze. There is no summer dearth and so we must inspect and treat for mites during some kind of flow. I think I've learned here that this system needs to be pulled before goldenrod blooms to ensure the frames have time to be harvested before nectar flow stops and there's no season left for them to cap. I plan to do inspections after St Patrick's day here and put the flow Super on to catch the full spring flow this year.
Very thorough and helpful! It's a neat system. I can't wait for you to get a long hive and talk about that after using it for a while.
Me too!!!
This will probably be our next subject for notebooking😂! I'll have to save your playlist! Thank you for the review and great info!
Bees are SO fascinating!!
Tuned in and watching with my hubby! ❤ bees are so amazing. Hubbys dream lol
I really love keeping bees!!
@@SageandStoneHomestead you are a super hero at homesteading girl! For real ❤️
Awe I JUST saw this reply! You are so sweet, thank you!
Great video Heather!! I have learned so much from your channel about a variety of different things. Beekeeping is still very intimidating to me but hats off to you! It's hard to believe this is only your second year with the bees, you have a wealth of knowledge and are a great teacher!!! Best wishes as you prepare your hives for winter!! Stay safe!!!
Thank you so much Cindy, I've read a few books where old beekeepers say they never stop learning about bees and that's why they love them so much. They are really amazing creatures!♡♡
Good morning Heather. Bee safe. 🐝 🐝 🍯 🍯
Haha thanks!! You as well!! ♡♡
Great video! Beekeeping is a dream! Fresh honey for years 😘
Fantastic video. We saw you guys live on Old Swedes Farm the other night and are glad we did. Bees are something that we have been back and forth on numerous times for our homestead and to be honest I (Steph) thought the flow hive was a great option. So glad that we watched this video as it has answered many questions that we didn't even know we had.
I'm so glad it was helpful!! That's definitely the goal!!
I’m glad I watched this before I decided to purchase one. I’m going conventional.
That's a great way to start. You can always get one later if you want to try it but yeah, don't try to learn beekeeping with one of these on.
Same here...
Well, a very good approach to pros and cons on flow hives.
Congratulations and thank you very much!
Thanks so much for watching !
@@SageandStoneHomestead It has been a pleasure.
I insist...Thanks to YOU!!! (LOL...)
Been using flow hives for a few years. The flow needs to be harvested in place with the slow backwards for honey to flow and the bees are keeping it warm so it flows. Only open a quarter of a frame to harvest at a time. Live in a cold part of Australia.
We had it tilted back. But we opened all at once. It should be fine if fully capped. Mine was not but they were not going to cap it at that point in the year.
Agreed!! Had my 1st harvest this fall. Absolutely EVERYTHING you said is truth!! Harvesting is A Heavy mess and discouraged me from inspections. I harvested inside for the same reasons.
It's such a great concept but definitely is fussy. Thanks for commenting !
I appreciate you Heather. Candor is in short supply these days!
Thank you so much!! It's basically how I have to function haha
i've heard that after your first harvest from those things, they never go back into proper alinement fully again. sooo good luck with that. can't wait till you go horizontal! neighboring ranch did, and the bee keeper there keeps asking "why didn't i do that sooner?" apparently lot less back pain!
I can't wait!!! It really seems ideal.
Have had the Flow since 2015 and still going strong. Never had any issues with re alignment..
Super cool for beeskeeping
Hope to learn, raise rabbits, chickens and beeskeeping (Florida)
I took beekeeping classes back in 2015-16. Ann Harman was my teacher, but she passed in 2020. I also took a few classes from Spikenard Bee Sanctuary in VA. That was an amazing class. I am really wanting to get back into bees, but I feel as though I forgot everything already. LOL First step is to clean up my hives. Then we will decide what is best.
I so hope you're able to get started again when the time is right!! 🥰
If you live where you get cold winters I would remove the flow hive every fall and harvest into a large pan and then clean all crazy comb that is attached and then freeze the flow frames until spring.
It's a lot of work for the supposed convenience. It's just not my cup of tea I don't think!
Thank you very much.
You are welcome! Thanks for watching!
Great video and great info! I've learned a lot from you this season. I'm hoping we have some bees in the next couple years. Thanks for sharing everything! Cheers!
Thanks for watching!! The bees are the most fun thing for me to share.
Thank you for this video. I'm going to try to get into bee keeping. I was going to buy the flow hive but I think not now. Thank you
In my opinion it is not a beginner piece. I think you'll enjoy beekeeping better without it ♥
Great review! I find your logical, in-depth information invaluable and even though I’m a relatively newer subscriber, your opinions have become much more heavily weighted in my decision making than other creators.
Thank you so much!! That means a lot to me!!♡
Very cool! One day we'll get bees if not just to pollinate our garden and the honey as a bonus! Still so afraid of doing something wrong and killing the colony!
It does happen, but if you think about it... there's a good chance that you'll have colonies survive too that ordinarily wouldn't without your help. Bees can live in the wild but the vast majority of wild colonies do not survive winter.
I lost one colony this year already but we grew from 4 to 9 and we are at 7 now because the one was lost due to queen failure and I combined 2 other colonies. We are still up 3!
thanks- really good and helpful video
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching! 🐝
Thank you, great review
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for the info.
Thanks for watching!
This video is perfect. We just did the same thing last night and had the exact same experience. Luckily, we brought it in the house to extract the honey as we were taking it off to winterize the bees!! I'm so glad I found your video. Subscribed and followed as this is our first year bee keeping. We have two 8 frame regular boxes and the flow hive. We got 45 lbs between last month and last night of honey. We left about 50 lbs for them for over winter. I'm not sure what they'll need, so we put in protein packs and will put in a candy tray full of sugar with a feeding box filled with shavings for moisture control and insulation. I'm not sure how they get water over winter. We are still learning, with so much more to learn. lol ❤
I'm so glad you got the box off and didn't spill honey on the bees like I did! Welcome to the channel, we just started feeding for winter. ❤️🐝
@@SageandStoneHomestead Thanks for the reply. Do you need to give them water for winter?
We don't have to because we have a pond that stays unfrozen on the days they are flying. I don't feed in-hive at all. My feeding station is pretty far away from the colonies and they come get it on days it's warm enough to fly
They will drink the condensation that builds up in the box too. Our inner covers are concaved so the condensation is routed to the walls of the hive instead of dripping on the bees, they will drink from the walls when not flying.
Great video! 👍
Thanks, Lisa!! ♡
I hate my Flow Hive...over priced and already falling apart here in FL...just a year old, by the way....I will stick with my Anel hives...
I'm about to move the bees out of the Flow brood box into a long hive. I found the brood box to be tight for 10 frames
@@SageandStoneHomestead Correct ....
The flow hive is a Miracle for honey harvesting!
It is Good for the beekeeper because of the ease of harvesting the honey. No removal of supers, no decaping the cells, no spinning frames in a centrifuge. When it's ready, just twist the lever on the frames and the honey starts flowing. After harvesting is complete, restore (untwist) the frames and plug the access port. Very simple.
For the bees, as stated already, it is very non invasive because you don't have to remove the supers, so the bees are WAY less stressed! After harvesting, the bees will simply refill the emptied cells with honey and recap them, just as they've been doing all summer.
Flowhive is MUCH MUCH better than a angstrom hive, where you have to severely stress the bees by breaking open their hive, Smoking them into a stupor, removing part of their home, then closing it up again. And you STILL have to extract the honey by hand in a long, messy process.
Flowhive is SO MUCH better!
You've got your opinions and I'm glad you love it. Frankly I hate the thing.
Are you beekeeper or you're seller of the flowhives? I read that people were saying that when you rotate the key it kills some bees and some cells not closing properly what could have happened with the flowhive of that lady. If that was saw good why the beekeepers not using them? I have not heard anyone of people who had beehives using them. People just use regular beehives. The lady also many times said that in some other things the regular behive is easier to manage. Considering its price 8-10 times more than langstroth I just do not get why I need replacing one problems with other for lots of money?
@@alexk6745 are you commenting at someone I cannot see? Maybe they have me blocked? I just see my comments and yours and we agree that it’s not worth the price.
@@alexk6745 oh. I’m sorry disregard me I see this is on a reply thread!!
Hi Heather. I live in Stanthorpe QLD, Australia. Google the town and Snow. Many places in Australia experience winters. Many hives around here. But not many flow hives! Hope that info is of value. 😊
That's great to know!!!
Thank you for this very honest review of the Flow-style hive. All your points are well-thought out and make lots of sense to me. I have been researching all kinds of hives and honey collection, as well as making long lists of equipment and costs. Whereas the Flow-style hive is supposed to reduce certain workload and equipment needed to be a beekeeper, it is not the "end-all, bee all" (see what I did there? lol) for a complete system.
Haha I do see what you did there! Yes the flow hive is nice but it can't replace the standard bee equipment. It's a great novelty addition to an apiary though!
There is so much to know about bees and beekeeping! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Flow system. Looks like a neat gadget but there are definite limitations in the design.
There are. It's a nice little gimmicky thing though
I have never kept bees myself & probably never will but I’ve been learning so much about them & I thought this might be helpful for someone: I heard Queen excluders can wear away at the wings of your workers & shorten their lives because they can’t fly well. That said I get why you’d use one, capped homey in a comb that once had brood in it doesn’t look great. The honey will be just fine but it affects the colour of your wax & it’s a less premium product after that. Also if you don’t use the flow hives you can go with the traditional Langstroth hives with plastic or wax foundation. Unfortunately that means that you can’t cut honey in the comb. You can charge $7 for a piece of spring honeycomb so it depends on your customer base if that’s worth trying for yourself. They make honeycomb frames that have no wire supports or foundation & it will fit your hive boxes like any other frame. You can only do this with a very strong colony because they have to start from scratch in that kind of honey super. They need enough honey to be able to create completely fresh comb & it takes 7 pounds of honey to make 1 pound of wax. If you’re feeding your bees in a dirth, there’s nothing better for a bee’s health than honey (You’ll get it back eventually)
We like the wire queen excluders because they are rounded rods that are gentle on the bees.
If your flow frame is leaking like that it means your wires are to loose, just pop the wire off on one end and put one more twist in and replace, also if you need only a small adjustment the wires have two notches it can sit in just leaver it into the upper notch. You shouldn't need to pull it apart to correct the deviances just put the tool in the close position and turn keeping it that way for a few minutes until the peices have reseated. If you go to the flowhive channel on you tube they go through q&a once a month when they do their inspections and you can ask for trouble shooting tips live. Or just watch their back catalog where they have answered those questions regularly, although the comb building on the underside is a new one on me. I have been watching the flowhive channel for years and am now in the process of buying a flow hive now that my brother has a property it can go on with a already available bee tree that needs removing..
I will definitely do that to adjust the frame that seems out of alignment, thank you!! The frame only leaks when harvesting and as you can see in the video it flows out over the side of the frame when the honey backs up in the channel and has nowhere else to go. That's why waiting until it's fully capped is important, and that's a tricky game in the fall. I'll look at the wires but it's definitely leaking because of the lack of capping as well. And that's not the fault of the frame itself.
@@SageandStoneHomestead yes it is a known problem when harvesting because the channel the honey flows through is not tight as it is not a single tube but multiple peices lined up to make a tube if they are not tightly sealed it does leak. This mostly happens on the first harvest and when the bees notice the leak they will propeilize and if it happens in subsequent harvests then make the adjustments to the wire.
I could see that!! Did you see the backflow of honey spilling over where the cells were uncapped? That's where most of the honeyleaked from when I harvested.
@@SageandStoneHomestead oh I see what you mean the honey from the upper layers as they were leaking down had nothing to stop it from spilling out, only way to stop that is leaving a little longer before harvesting so the bees have time to seal it up, if you are unsure if it's ready just take the frame you plan on harvesting out to check it, sometimes if there is a dirth of nectar the bees will eat out the centre of the frame if this happens you'll loose most of the honey to spillage, because it'll just flow out the uncapped cells.
Great tip!! Thank you so much!!!
You should be inspecting the flow frames like any other frames so you will break the comb at the bottom
Right it's just an excessive amount of space so there is way more comb than with regular langstroth frames that have better bee spacing. It's hard as hell to pry them off.
Thanks
ty, great video!
Thank you Cherie!!💕
Great review of the flow frame, right on the mark of its pros and cons. Well done.
I have 4 flow frames and love them but would never recommend having more than 3-4, (2 or 3 would be more realistic), definitely a small backyard beekeeper hive (super). Only comment I have is when you harvested the frame out of the box it seemed the frame was level instead of tilted 5 degrees and the entire frame was opened instead of 1/4, or less, at a time. The bottom receiving tube should never be more than 1/2 full while harvesting. I have harvested partially capped frames with very little loss into the hive but one needs to be patient.
Patience is not one of my strong suits!! I actually had the whole colony tilted backward, there is a piece of wood out there I use, it is an inch wide so it is more than 5 degrees back but maybe that is part of the issue too.
Thanks so much!!
It would’ve helped to keep the honey from dripping down if #1 is was properly sloped to flow out the tube and #2 if you only drained 1/2 of the frame at a time.
It would happen regardless because of the lack of capping. The super was sloped for sure. You can see where the box has a gap in it where we shimmed it up for an angle. There needs to be a wall of capping to handle the overflow. Half the super is still a quart and a quart of 17% moisture honey takes a bit to flow out the honey channel. There's several variables to consider which is why I made the video.
Video yang bagus sangat bermanfaat 👍👍👍
Thank you!!
I am interested in bee keeping I came across your video. Any advice from you or your subscribers is appreciated
I would definitely suggest you get in contact with your local beekeeping association!! They will be your best support system and they'll be able to let you know all the ins and outs of beekeeping in your area!! Definitely soak up all the knowledge that you can and adapt what sounds best to you to fit your region. From what I hear, a caught swarm are the best bees to start with. ♡♡
What about adding a second brood box to avoid some of the problems you had? Would give queen plenty of space to avoid being nectar bound etc.
The biggest problem for me is the spacing issues between the flow frames and the top of the frames In the bottom box causing them to create a lot of extra comb that really makes getting the flow super off incredibly difficult. On top of that it is very heavy with minimal space as handles and it's just not enjoyable to work with. Not worth the hassle for a fun way to collect honey.
I decided awhile ago I'd never get a flow hive. It's a big investment for something that will eventually just deteriorate and break, since it's made of plastic. It might work great the first few years, but tell me how it works 10 years from now when heat and UV like have beaten it down in the sun. There are many shady rip-offs these days on the market, so I'm sure a lot of new beekeepers are getting duped spending hundreds of dollars for junk.
I'll keep you posted! I will say the plastic parts on the name brand flowhive are covered with the exterior Super and very rarely see the sun. It's a costly purchase though you're right, and maybe isn't worth it.
I simply cannot heave around 10 frame boxes full of honey, etc. Thus, Flow Hives are just the thing.
I use a wagon and move frame by frame into a Hive Butler and wheel it away.
This is amazing information, there is no other way but to try different methods to find the one you like better.
I'm nowhere near getting bees at this point, but excited to learn a lot about them before we actually start.
I'm keeping all these bee videos on a playlist to refer back to them
There's a lot of small projects to perfect the systems we have with the ducks and goats, to keep them more comfortable and easier to do chores in the morning, before we decide to add a new animal/project =D
In my list next is rabbit and chickens ( meat ones) but I first need to process 5 drakes that we have, we are only keeping 9 girls and 1 drake ( one of the ducklings that is very sweet and mellow ) I'm kind of over weird and skittish drakes, they are going to end up being raccoon food becauuse they don't want to go in the shelter at night. So I better put them in the freezer before that happens.
Have you processes duck? Is it too old to process a 2 year old one?
I want to start doing it at the 51 day mark from now on for better meat quality but at this point is a question of numbers and as an introduction before I get rabbits and meat chickens.
Any advice on the duck processing is highly appreciated, I've been watching processing videos non stop!
Much love to you and your family friend!
Lety
I have never processed a duck!!! I gave my ducks away to my sister in law because we didn't even really like the eggs. The ducks I had were from a friend who had to rehome all her farm animals quickly and she had nowhere for the ducks to go. (I bought her goats, my original LaMancha).
@@SageandStoneHomestead Wow! We love the eggs around here and that is why we haven't really wanted to get chickens!
Isn't that crazy?
Hopefully your sister in law likes the eggs better!
Thanks Heather
She loves the eggs!!!
Them frames was drippin like an ac window unit
😅😅
Have you tried running a flow hive honey box (underneath) a brood box ? The bees don't care and it will make working (inspecting) etc. in the brood box a lot easier but you will need to put a bottom board below the flow box and still use a Queen Excluder between the boxes. Also will allow you to add a 2nd brood box on top if you need to create room for overcrowding.
I've moved onto horizontal hives because it's easier for me!
@@SageandStoneHomestead I did not know that ! Good Luck !
@@Bowhunters6go8xz6x thank you!
That is not a good idea because it would put the valuable food right at the entrance, resulting in a weak defense against robbing for example. Bees like to keep their food away from the entrance because of that.
@@ulaB Correct. I wonder how many people know this simple fact...
Wouldn't just adding another brood box solve the swarming problem? If it's a matter of space to expand you should be able to just stack another box.
With regards to the separation of the queen from the superbox, as far as I understand it, the worker bees are always tending to the queen, they should never leave her and they should always bring her the food she needs (from the superbox), so not sure why they'd leave the broodbox, where the queen and brood are, to go the superbox even if it's where the food reserves are stored. I was under the impression the bulk of the hive is always at and around the brood hives specifically to keep it at temperature especially at winter, and that's where the queen would be too. Or am I mistaken?
The hive moves 1mm per day into their food storage in cold weather and the queen outside of the cluster will freeze. Colonies have been known to die inches away from food because if they get too cold they can't move the cluster up fast enough to get food. Adding another brood box does not always prevent swarming, though I can't remember why I talked about swarming in this video. The flow hive super gets really heavy and that's part of the problem of dealing with it to add on new boxes. It gets heavier than a regular deep box when full which is 100 lbs.
That was the great video. Thanks for that. It confirmed my thought that it is a waste of money. Many thanks for letting me know about the thing which I did not know that excluder must be removed for the winter. I really do not wanna let queen go up into super. e have mild winters with average night temperature 0. Can I swap super and brrod for the winter so that super is below brood box and separated with excluder? It seems logical, even if bees go down for honey the worm aire will be going up and queen most likely will be ok. You also made a good statement that it costs like an extractor which very useful. I was not sure if I ever buy an extractor as I basically initially was thinking I will have only 2 beehives. But I start to think I may have 3 or 4 but very unlikely. Not sure if it worth buying extractor just for 2-4 beehives and I was not planning to sell the honey just mainly honey for us and bee products like royal jelly, bee bread, drone homogenate, propolis.
No excluder at all over winter you want the queen to be able to freely move with the cluster. In about 50f range the bees have a hard time moving at all and sometimes will die even if close to food because their muscles won't work in that temp. The tight cluster of winter bees is where the warmth is and how they are able to move about. Many people take off the super entirely over winter and the bees are fed sugar on the top of the frames.
So, I live in Georgia. This is literally day 1 of me considering beekeeping. I just want one hive. I just want to have some bees on our property to pollenate and also take care of such a complex species. I do have some questions. With the whole removing the super for winter, is there a lid that goes on the brood chamber or boxes? We get about two weeks every year flirting in the 20’s. I just want to know the best way to protect them during the winter. How do you make sure the queen survives?
I think it's smart to keep two hives because queens are delicate and things happen. You want to have a second hive to pull from if your main colony needs anything like eggs to make a new queen with. Right now is a good time to learn about beekeeping before spring (in the US), I suggest following Frederick Dunn. He has so much awesome advice for beginners.
Thanks for your video. I’m a new residential bee keeper and Flow hive owner in a dry, warmer Southern California climate. Our winters are probably milder and shorter than where you are now. I was wondering, Why not stack another Langstrom frame on top of the first BEFORE putting the flow super on, to allow your colony and queen to be stronger and warmer in the winter? Would this allow you to use the queen excluder without worrying about the queen or would this make the hive too large? Obviously this would take longer and if your seasons are short this could be difficult. Just wondering if that would work…?
I can't recall if you can really see it in this video well but this particular colony is a deep and a half as far as brood goes. So when they condense the cluster down for winter they do actually only occupy the bottom box but fill up that medim super with honey (backfill) and that's their winter feed. They do really well with that! Problem is, as they eat upward through that honey over the winter they could very well end up in the flow Super and that would be a big headache. So we pull it off as recommended! ♥
why not just get two brood boxes? Plenty of food and Flow hives are in even northern europe without problem.
It still needs to come off over winter with the queen excluder. No matter how many boxes are beneath it. The queen laying in the flow frames presents problems.
The hive it was on had a single deep plus a medium super and then thr flow super on that. The medium has their winter stores.
Why don’t you just take the supers off and leave the bee boxes with the queen then you won’t have a queen laying in the super also you could reduce the entrance size of the landing and wrap the bottom boxes with insulation and leave the supers open so they are cold to force the bees to winter in the bottom and face the bees away from the wind to keep it warmer also you could put a flood light facing the bottom box say like your trying to save a well or plant this will also encourage the bees to stay in the bottom without ever having to remove the queen extruder
We do take the flow super off in winter. We have to.
@@SageandStoneHomestead😀👁️🇻🇨😀😉🤤😬🤗🤬😖😎💦😹💛💛💖💔💋😊
I thought there’s a black mat that stops the queen from going up into the super?
@@luciantempest1291 that’s the queen excluder usually wire or plastic material sorta like screed that she can’t fit threw
What if you have 3 levels and cap the 1st level (flow) in winter so the bees and the Queen stay warm while doing it the flow way during warmer months?
I'm not sure what you mean by capping it flow in winter? The flow is off during winter and will be put on in spring, soon! Really excited to use it again.
@@SageandStoneHomestead well, you mentioned in your video that if you put the separation netting deal (that looks like a fence for bees) so the queen can’t pass to the other levels but the worker bees do, it leaves the Queen be alone and therefore she may freeze during winter. If you hypothetically had a 3 story beehive and put a mesh of sorts to keep all the bees in level 1 and 2 and you had your Flow system on level 3, wouldn’t that solve the freeze issue? And then when the hotter months came around, would it be helpful to remove the blockade and place the little fence thing so the queen bee doesn’t move to the 3rd level but the worker bees could create the honey properly. Idk. Just curious if the idea is practical and would work. Also curious on if bee colonies are kept outdoors and they insulate themselves OR if moving them to a garage/ shed with an open window for ventilation would be better for them, idk. I guess, how do they survive the winter? Thanks!
Oh I see what you mean! That queen excluder has to come off over winter. It allows worker bees through but the queen can't make it through and you'll right, she will freeze if left behind. There isn't a way (as far as I know) to leave the Flow Super on over winter and keep the queen safe by allowing her access to all the boxes.
So I just got a flow super for my birthday. I have the queen excluder on. I'm getting ready to order bees. From my understanding, you remove your flow super from the hive and add a regular frame for winter?
We take the whole flow super off for winter, yes. The queen excluder needs to come off over winter and you don't want to have her laying up there. Unless the frames contain honey I wouldn't put anything in place of that flow super, we often condense the colonies down at that time.
@SageandStoneHomestead understood. Thank you. I'm a new bee keeper. I have a 1 regular hive and now the flow hive. Do you think it's a good idea to ventilate the hives by drilling a hole at the top. I see some people doing so?
If you do put a screen over the hole and see what the bees do with it. If they cover it with propolis they don't need it!
@SageandStoneHomestead wow, that is very smart. Will do, and thank you again.
You're so welcome!
I wish I have ine
I need help on what's going on, I see the set broken down and from the other videos check the wax caps and turn.
Could you clarify more on what you need help with?
@@SageandStoneHomestead I love this invention top 5 why do you not like the flow hive?
I don't feel like it's a beginner piece. I don't like the amount of comb the bees build under it, there is too much space under the flow frames. It seems super fussy despite marketing it as an easy way to collect honey, you still need to do heavy lifting and all of that. It just isn't marketed well and I think it's fine but it won't replace conventional beekeeping or honey collection. It's just not feasible at scale.
I don't like that you can't offer the honey back to the bees for winter and you can't use the frames to bolster a swarm catch or a split. It's just only relatively good at only one function and just using regular frames makes beekeeping easier and more flexible. It's self limiting.
I don't dislike it, but I don't think it's world- changing..
@@SageandStoneHomestead I understand better now thank you. I guess it depends on the person I don't mind taking some time to build the Flow Hive because I love Bee's and using their powers. I don't have equipment at the moment, god willing I should have some by next year I don't have any experience as of now.. As for the winter see if you can stop the harvest before it gets too cold. I'm not worried about the Bee's they have 2 months to get it together and 2 months only.
Why don't you try a bee house . Bec its good for people with winters .
I love the idea of those, just a lot of cost upfront!
I want wax and I don't want micro plastics.
wax is an amazing rescource!
what is the material of the hxagonal frame? the bee mae it?
The base is plastic and they doo add their own wax to it. It's sort of a hybrid.
How many acres do you have?
We have just over 9 acres at the moment!
As of July 2024 this hive costs about $1,000 which is equivalent to about 250 lbs of honey at supermarket prices. I don’t know if this hive will be able to generate this much honey over its lifetime, but I’m pretty sure no human being will be able to consume that much honey. What’s the point? What am I missing?
I don't think you're missing anything, personally!! We do not use ours anymore and have switched to keeping in long langstroth hives. The money is better spent on nice processing equipment like an extractor and Hive Butler Totes. Because even if heavy-lifting is hard for you, this super is ridiculously heavy when full of honey and it is not practical to drain it of honey before each inspection.
@@SageandStoneHomestead Is a regular Langstroth honey super not as heavy as the Flow?
It all depends on how much you already have. I’m looking at getting my first hive in the spring. So I don’t have anything. If you look at the cost of a regular hive made out of cedar with a similar stand and all the equipment needed to harvest the honey the price is pretty comparable. If you don’t care what type of wood the hive is made from and have access to the harvesting equipment then it’s a different story.
@@lvthunder our first harvest we did a crush and strain. Arguably an extractor is just not necessary but it's nice if you'd like to have access to drawn comb.
@@lvthunder It all depends on how many hives you want to end up with. As a hobbyist with 3-5 hives, the Flow Hive still is an interesting option. If you plan to have more hives, the costs per hive will make the difference. Because you only need the extraction equipment once.
It is mysterious to me why one never sees how to set up the brood box.
Could you enlighten me? The brood box is under the flow super that this video is about.
OK so the flow hive doesn't sound like it's good for a beginner at all then.
It sounds like an add on for someone who already knows how to bee keep with a lot of ways to screw it up.
I noticed another commenter say that this thing would crush the larvae and now I know there shouldn't be larvae in there.
I'm starting off with 2x4 squares laid flat and layers of plywood between them. Holes drilled in the sides.
If bees move in, great. I'm not going beyond that.
Bees love to move into interesting spaces!! I bet if you drip around some lemongrass oil you'll get someone moving in this spring!
Is it made with plastic?
Yes it's food grade but it is plastic.
@@SageandStoneHomestead Thanks. Microplastics.
@@averykleon yes we live in a fallen world.
??? flowhive never communicated this tru the manual or other??? thats unacceptable! they must know about this very common problem. its not common to the extent you experienced but still quite common.
They suggest it be fully capped but don't explain that it's for more than just the honey and how well it's cured, the cappings function to hold the honey in a downward column to not allow it to flow over the sides. I've not heard them mention this, no. But, they do suggest opening the frames partially at first so they don't back honey up through the tube, so I'll be trying that soon.
Are they good for starting a farm and buying 10 or 15 of them?
You'd have to watch the review and decide that for yourself.
I have 2. Total cool first year total garbage after 2-3 years.
I didn't pull mine out for a second season. What happens after that?
I INVENTED THIS
Did you? I thought Cedar and his dad did, in Australia.
they're banned in California
The type of plastic used?
It's gotta be (was so tempted to write "gotta bee") but the restriction is so broad I can't figure out why. Couldn't find any site that would ship to this dang state.
@@SageandStoneHomestead
I'm so sorry!
When u sum everything it is not worth it. Nature of bees are perfect already, we dont need to change it. Also you will save all of that wax so you can make new wax basis, candles, balsams. With standard frames you can change their place whereever is needed. Not to mention that Flow system can stack, and that is a mess than. For presentation and honey extraxtion it is good, but it is not practical in terms of beekeeping, which is the core of honeymaking. Any hive must be observed with care in order to be successful beekeeper. And if u want more aesthetics for your backyard, simply make more beautifull standart LR hives with fancy roof, dont need to spent all that money for flow system. It is better to use that money to buy some woodworking tools and make hives and frames alone, where you will learn more skills for life.
Couple things, in response to your comment.
1) It seems that this company doesn't have alot of experience with beekeeping beyond that of its founder, going so far as to render some really bad advice to new customers
2) while the flow hive might be able to catch up with easier harvesting, it's worth noting that their classic configuration is 25% less space efficient than a trading langstroth hive.
3)If someone wanted to go with this company, the "hybrid" configuration is probably the best since it only has three flow frames and requires 4 traditional frames that have to be removed to harvest. However, the way it is configured isn't conducive to checking them during harvesting, which can lead to lazy, incompetent, or inexperienced keepers to neglect them.
I'd argue the only "good" thing about them is the fact that the hives have windows that can be used to check on them when disassembling them might not be necessary.
please stop saying "imporant" that T is IMPORTANT.
I'll speak how I've spoken and been understood for years. Thanks.
Very easy simple concept basic logic if life is not free why the hell would death be any cheaper it's not. So the question one may wonder is the spiritual cost to one's own soul and spirit for having lived and died only using the smallest percentage of A fraction of the true potential they were first born with equally as reckless neglectful at the same time to the lowest standards of quality for so many years now global pollution has diminished the quality of life to the point where today's people are living, dying and yielding the worst spiritual kickback that has ever been manifested since the beginning of life only getting worse. The polar opposite extreme to that is today's people should be living and dying to the highest standards of quality which would make each and every moment physically, mentally, financially and spiritually beneficial rewarding constantly consistently S.R.F.
What?
Flow hives sicken me. They are for people who want to turn a tap and get honey. Why not just go to the supermarket and buy some honey instead?
Its definitely difficult to beekeep around this device. For me personally I dreaded having to try and pry it off for inspections.