OOohhh you mentioned me :) Thank you so much! No question that the number one complaint is the cost of the hive. I'm glad to know that this hive design was at the foundation of your inspiration to keep bees. You are also spot on that we need to inspect and know about the bees and what's going on down below the Flow-Supers. I can share that this is my 7th year with the frames and you will need to clean them eventually, but they are not wearing out "yet". Just get the super and put it on any strong colony you have :) YOU have a GREAT beekeeping Spring! :)
I mention you all the time. You my friend are the OG of the UA-cam beekeepers. I have been watching your videos from the beginning. You and Jim at Vino Farm have had a huge influence on my beekeeping and my YouTubing. I know I can always count on your channel for solid information and great filmography. Moreover, you are the reason I have chickens and a home weather station. I am working to improve my beekeeping this year and not focus on the honey or the number of colonies, but rather the bees and the process. That said, I am a tinkerer and will continue to try new things and approach the issues of beekeeping from a different perspective than most. I hope I don't let you down as a virtual mentor. Thanks for stopping in to have a look at some of my videos and for taking the time to comment, but mostly for just being out there. I really appreciate you. Take care.
Literally all the company has to do is license out for north America and Europe to local factories and allow the Americans to dig into it. Guarantee they'll find a way to drive production costs down to a 1/3 of what they are now, they're excellent at that. Slash the price 50% and still walk away with an even higher profit margin and you've made it possible to double or triple sales because it's now more affordable. Again, I don't know why this company isn't doing this already.
This guy makes me want to buy one or two I've got a big garden and lots of flowers but I don't know anything about bees but it looks like the Flow hive hybrid is definitely the way to go for a first time beekeeper
@@kevinheflin4375 me too... i had seen a video criticising the flow hive... but this was more informative (can't remember the other video) .. I have been looking at beekeeping for a couple of years but haven't tried yet.. i am in australia and will look at flow hives again.. thanks
Thank you. I sincerely appreciate that. I always provide an honest review. Even if the products are provided to me at no cost. I like to spread the word about good products and how to make products better. I also like to call out bad products so people don't waste their money on them. Cash is too hard to come by these days and doesn't need to be wasted on things that don't provide good value or utility. Thank you for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it.
Great video! I've have kept bees for about 10 years, but chose to give my 2 hives to a friend, along with all my supplies and equipment, when we moved last June. I'm looking to "start over", and am always looking for the latest and greatest. I think the most intimidating part of beekeeping for me when I started was the robbing and extracting process, and I made plenty of mistakes before I finally figured out the best process for my situation. I suspect that is the case for most new, inexperienced beekeepers. To that end, the Flow Hive has a lot of appeal, especially to the person looking for a great hobby and sweet rewards.
I agree. If the plan is to have just a couple of garden hives, and just a couple of garden hives, the Flow Hive is a great solution. If you don't want to spend the money on the full blown flow hive I have another video that will help you build a couple on the cheap: ua-cam.com/video/tPdLojvoeYs/v-deo.html or you can et a cheap Chinese knock-off that will serve the same purpose.
The most insightful and interesting comment made is the information that each flow frame may provide different tasting honey due to the bees filling the frames sequentially over time. A Langstroth extraction usually combines frames to extract honey (although you could extract each frame individually to get the same result) I’m in the same position as the presenter in starting out beekeeping and have already made the decision to look at, and make, a Top Bar hive for my next beehive, simply due to the relative costs of the Flow system. You can mix and match frames so I think it would be possible to use the flow frames individually in a TopBar or Langstroth hive (with a purpose made opening). Either way many thanks for your video and your enthusiastic presentation.
Yes, it would be completely possible to use the flow frames in a top bar hive. You can actually pick up knock-off flow frames from Amazon for cheap to give it a try. If you end up trying it share the results with me. I would love to hear about it.
@@BugFarmerBees Thank you for your reply. I am in Australia and don’t have the harsh winters many responders talk about here, but we have other issues, such as heat that we have to contend with. I also live not far from the flow hive inventors.
I can tell you are very passionate about bee keeping and your extensive research is now being passed down to myself. It was a brilliant video start to finish. I am not a beekeeper, however, I have a strong desire to do so and I have even more courage now to become a bee keeper myself.
I really appreciate the kind words.Beekeeping is an addictive and rewarding hobby. There really is no need to spend a ton of money to get started. You can get yourself a couple of NUCs from a supplier and either order or build a couple of beehives and you are off to the races. You will be harvesting your own honey as soon as next summer. All of your neighbors with flowers and gardens will love you too :-). If you haven't looked into Bee Castle hives I can highly recommend them. a.co/d/6fjSz7z , they are quality hives and offer good value and utility for the money. You can get a couple of full kits for little money. Or if you choose to go the Flow Hive direction you can get themm from honeyflow.com Welcome to the hobby. ;-)
Thanks for the review. Fair, comprehensive and entertaining! I've been a beekeeper in the past and have been looking into the Flow Hive system as an option, so it's great to get some insights and input from those, like yourself, who are using them. Awesome job!
I remember seeing the start when they were raising money on the website. I thought about it back then but unfortunately I was living in a crappy city neighbors too close and well no flowers for the bees. So I thought it wouldn't be right. Now I living in a town with more nature around and starting to think about it again. Specially since the neighbors have a little bit more distance. I need to learn more about bee keeping before I purchase. Thank you for the video it's very informative specially for someone like me who is thinking about starting.
Hi and thank you for stopping in to have a look. All I can say is I highly recommend beekeeping if you have the space for a couple of hives in your yard. You won't regret it as a hobby. It's like having outdoor fish tanks that provide a bucket of honey twice a year. That said, I do like the flow hives but at this point in time I would recommend a couple of inexpensive Langstroth hives to get started. Later if you want the novelty of a flow hive then either get one or build one. Again, thank you for stopping in to have a look at my video and I hope to see you in future comments. On this channel I like to keep it light and have fun and provide a look at hobbyist back yard beekeeping. You can learn from my mistakes and you can teach me with your successes. Take care.
Thank you for a great video! I appreciate your pros and cons, and you are easy to listen to. I will keep watching, and as a first year (attempting) beekeeper, I will/may consider trying a Flow Hive at some point. Wishing you a healthy bee season.
Thank you Deb. I appreciate you stopping in to have a look. It's my fourth year and I am still (attempting) to be a beekeeper. The bees still teach me something every day. Thanks for stopping in to have a look.
I've been considering flow hive every since their Kickstarter ( yes wish I had done it then) Now back to a do I or don't I ? Yours is the first video that really helps me understand what I looking at. Thank you so much. ! Great video!
I am really happy you found it useful. I do suggest that regardless of whether you choose the flow hive or not you take up beekeeping. It is a very useful and enjoyable hobby. I appreciate you stopping in top have a look and taking time to comment. Take care.
Fantastic explanation, very objective and complete. I like the fact that you gave credit to the creators of this invention and provide you personal comments around it... I might start mine soon, thanks to this video..!
Totally agree with what you have said here. I know zero about beekeeping & stumbled across a flow hive video on here yesterday & now i'm starting to get really interested in beekeeping & seriously considering trying this out. Yes they are expensive but for new people I think they are great & if these hives bring more new people into beekeeping in their backyard then that can only be a good thing
Thanks Steve. Just be careful, once you start beekeeping you get hooked in a hurry. Next thing you know you'll have 20 hives and side business selling honey. :-)
Good to find you and excellent video,I’m a yr out building up the property getting it ready to start a small business in honey,looking forward to watching more from you.
Excellent. I am building up the apiary and m y honey business too. Thank you for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to comment. I hope to see you in future comments. Take care.
I have watched many of the flow hive videos and Frederick Dunn. I love how cedar and the crew tell you how you can make some of your own gadgets or variations on gadgets etc rather than buying the actual product. The frames are brilliant and its always explained that you can use then in a normal Langstroth box. I have mine ready to go next spring, i cant wait.
Ha. You saw those. We are a Tae-kwon-do family. I hope you stay to check out some of my newer videos. Thanks for stopping in to have a look. I appreciate you taking the time to drop a comment and I hope to see you in future comments.
Thank you for this excellent presentation. I have a flow hive on order & am looking forward to sharing the experience & knowledge with my grandchildren. I therefore consider it to be good value for the money
I've been watching bee related videos off and on over the last couple years. Today I ordered two Flow Hive 2's, and now looking at as many bee videos as I can find :) Looking forward to the new adventure!
Hi Virginia. Great to hear. You are going to love beekeeping. Just remember two things: 1. Always move slow and steady when in your hive. The bees generally won't mind you being in the hive if you are slow and steady. They don't like jarring moves or strong vibrations. 2. The bees will punish you when you make a mistake. They, the bees, want you to be a great beekeeper and will nudge you in the right direction with a tiny sting or two when you make a mistake as a way to prevent you from make the mistake a second time. I will be harvesting my flow hives in a couple of weeks so you can stop in to have a look. Take care and have a great day. Welcome to beekeeping. :-)
I just bought my first flow hive 2, red cedar, 6 frame, new not used on sale for $129.00 with free shipping. I’ve been thinking of beekeeping for a couple of years now but just couldn’t afford the initial cost of $500 to $700 just for a hive so when I came across this deal I first thought it was a typo because everywhere else they are $500 dollars or more. I just ordered it yesterday 10/27/2022. At that price I couldn’t pass it up! I’m thinking about moving some money from savings and buying a second one.
never owned bee hives but now want a flowhoney bee hive. where is a great website/videos on the basics of bee keeping and maintaing bee hives. Dan in Rhode Island
Hi Dan. It is a wonderful hobby. I warn you though it is addictive. :-) Thank you for stopping in to have a look and taking the time to comment. I hope to see you in future comments. Take acre.
@@BugFarmerBees I am considering buying on complete set up of the flow honey set up along with equipment. It does seem like a lot of money but well built and makes collecting the honey easier?
I love doing research before buying. And I just loved this video! Only thing that really caught my attention was needing to buy another hive for them to grow another Queen. Very helpful information!!!
I am happy you found it useful. I hope you stick around and enjoy some of my other videos. Also, thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. It helps the channel. Take care.
New subscriber. This is an excellent video. Well articulated. Well opinionated. Thank you for sharing your experiences! I am wanting to get into bees and think this may be the way for me to do so. I have a lot to learn in the mean time. Cheers
I adore my flow hive. First of all I would never have got into beekeeping if it hadn't been for this. I love how each frame can have a completely different taste. I love not squishing bees during the process. (This should be the number one reason to use this method) I have called upon experienced beekeepers in my area to help with the management of the hive and I have learned a lot, but I know I have a lot more to learn. The cost is high but for the pleasure my bees knees give me it is fair. I don't have to buy an extractor.
I say DO IT! With or without a flow hive it is a great hobby. It's like having fish tanks outside that give you honey. :-) Thanks for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it and hope to see you in future comments. have a great new year.
🦄 Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge.🐝 I've been looking at clear plastic keg set ups. We live in town. So it would be a small hive and having the ability to see everything would be a big plus for the grandchildren. Just marinating on the idea.
They are a lot of fun and they do work. Just remember, you will have to inspect the hive from time to time. That said, you will get hooked on bees. They are very neat little creatures. Thanks for stopping in to have a look Christine. I really appreciate you taking time to comment. Take care.
really helpful video. i've been thinking about getting into beekeeping. i have a bunch of questions i'd like to ask you about getting started a flow started in my back yard. if i sent you an photo, would you be able to give me (and other viewers) advice on the best location for the hive(s)? thanks!!
Hi Jeff. The best location is one facing south-east. The goal id to capture that morning sunlight on the landing board all season to wake the girls up and get them out working. A full sun area is also preferred. It's great you are getting into beekeeping it is a very rewarding hobby. If I may provide one more piece of advice I would suggest starting out with two hives. It will provide you with a comparison and the ability to correct mistakes in one hive with resources from the other. Good luck on your adventure.
Very nice video! I don't know if I'll ever be able to get into beekeeping, but I found the flow hive because of their focus on not disturbing the bees while you harvest the honey. I've seen people discuss it so much but usually, they don't focus on the price, good to know there is such a big difference between the flow and Langstroth hives. One question, have you noticed if the bees reuse their combs after a harvest? I know you break them vertically, but after reading that the bees use a lot more energy to make wax, I wondered if the flow hive helped with that by not forcing them to remake it all, So I started wondering if they just patch the combs or eat the wax and reuse it, helping them be more comfortable and maybe even be able to produce more honey.
Great question. Yes the flow frames are reused after harvest. After I drain each frame I return the comb back to its closed position. The bees will immediately begin to repair the comb and start storing honey. Because the synthetic comb is mostly food grade plastic, the bees only need to reseal a seam that runs through the center of the comb. It takes no time at all. The bees are usually storing honey again within 48 hours. Beyond that, I hope you do get into beekeeping. It is very necessary to our environment, provides pollination to the plants, honey for your jar, and extra money in your pocket. Moreover, it's very rewarding and addictive. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and also for taking the time to comment. Take care.
@@BugFarmerBees If the frames are split in the middle temporarily and the caps on both of the sides are intact, what informs the bees to take away the caps and start over
The flow hive will work by itself season after season but to my knowledge no one over-winters bees in a flow hive with the flow super on the hive. I could be wrong but I haven't seen it. Remember, the brood box of a flow hive is a standard Langstroth hive body and is completely interchangeable with all Langstroth equipment of the same size. At the end of the nectar flow, and when my flow hive harvest is finished I remove the flow super and replace it with a medium super for the girls to store the fall flow and any supplemental sugar syrup I feed them in preparation for winter. I hope this answers your question. Take care.
I suggest watching my old videos, @Vino Far videos from the beginning, watch @Frederick Dunn. That should give you all you need to know to start beekeeping. It is a fun journey. I started watching @vino Farm and @Frederick Dunn for a year before I got my first hive. I learned much.
Excellent!!! Bees are a lot of fun especially if you like solving riddles. They are always posing new problems for us to solve. I would have to say the hardest thing about beekeeping though is remembering all of the bees names. After all the queen lays up to 1500 eggs a day. :-) Make sure to look around your area (3 mile radius) during your first year and then take time to notice the changes next year in the same area. More flowers, fuller gardens, etc.. Seeing the change in my area after I started was the most amazing thing ever. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and welcome to the hobby. I am sure you will find it rewarding. Take care. :-)
Glad you are beekeeping. Too bad you’re going to have headaches with FlowHive. They don’t work. Stick with standard frames and supers. You’ll thank me later. We have banned their use in ALL our club apiaries.
Great video! I've been researching to get into bee keeping with a Langstroth for the last week but was on the fence because of the time it takes to harvest that I don't really have spare. Until today when I discovered the Flow Hive and completely blew my mind. It fixes everything I was worried about. Honey on tap, yes please. My only new worry is since you mention each frame tastes different, would it make it harder to sell/please returning customers since they would be expecting the same great taste?
Looking to get into beekeeping and the Flow Hive seems like a great box. Here is my thing as I know colonies split and you get more hives. What if you do not want more hives but maybe one maybe two total??? How do you manage that aspect so you don't have a field of 200 boxes in 10 years?...LOL BTW- Great review and fact you still have to do basic bee keeping task even with a Flow Hive. I wondered the same thing as well and you answered my question.
First, thank you for stopping in to have a look and I am happy it helps. Now for swarm management. If you want to maintain only two hives you have a couple of options. The option you choose really depends on your goals; honey, or pollination. If you simply want to pollinate your garden and surrounding area you can simply let the bees swarm whenever they decide they need too. Generally bees will swarm once or twice per year per colony depending on their numbers, space, and available resources needed to sustain the colony. Each time they swarm they will leave 1/3 to 1/2 the bee population in the hive. If your goal is honey you will want to prevent the swarm and keep the bees in the hive. The larger the colony the more honey at harvest. Generally this requires you, the beekeeper, to add boxes, cut out queen cells, perform internal demaree splits, clip the queens wing, etc.... There are many ways to stop swarming but all of them require you, the beekeeper, to be on top of the activity of the hive. That is the short answer. There are a lot of great channels out there that can help you with your journey. Frederick Dunn( @FrederickDunn ), Vino Farm( @vinofarm ), Bob Binnie ( @bobbinnie9872 ) , Mike Barry( @MikeBarryBees ), Kamon Reynolds( @kamonreynolds ), and many more. Make sure to check out the older videos too as there is always a lot of great information available. All of that said, I hope you come back to my channel for my weekly videos, I always try to keep it light and fun. I am not a teacher but you can certainly learn from my successes and failures. Sorry for the wall of text but I hope this answers your questions. Take care.
So, the Flow Hive is a gateway drug for beekeepers?! I can believe that. I started out looking at Flow Hives. Pretty sure it was Jim, over at Vino Farms, that convinced me not to get one (yet). This will be my 3rd year, and still haven't overwintered any bees yet, but I keep trying, and at least I have some drawn comb for the nucs when the get here. Central Maine
You have been keeping bees for three years and they never make it through the winter? You may want to look at my hive heater videos. That should keep your bees toasty warn throughout the winter. Part 1 of 4 : ua-cam.com/video/ulG_bWTMZBU/v-deo.html
@@BugFarmerBees LOL. First winter I didn't strap my lids down. Wind and rain blew them off and then the temp dropped to 30 degrees that night. Last year I blew out my knee in July and could get to my hives until after Thanksgiving. Crossing my fingers for this year.
Loved the video! Thank you. Quick question for overwintering i was thinking the same lines with a medium normal frame super. Is there any brand of medium super that fits better on a flow hive 2, than others?
That is a great question. Let me go to the shop really quick and measure some boxes. Hold please.... Okay, after a run to the shop I have to say any box that is built with 3/4" stock should be fine. All Langstroth internal dimensions are the same. The only difference is the thickness of the wood they are built with. My flow hive is built with 3/4" cedar so any box built with 3/4" stock should be fine. I have some boxes that are 7/8 and even 1". I hope this helps and answers you question. Take care.
@Bug Farmer Thank you!! Really appreciate it! Love your videos. Learned soo much! Appreciate all your hard work and dedication to get newbies like me on the right path 🥰💓
I think it would work well in a horizontal hive. Actually there is a fellow here on UA-cam who builds horizontal flow hives. Have a look at his Channel @Horizontalbees ua-cam.com/channels/EUhmz1QuiiivRosypI_-hg.html
I have a question for you if you have the time to answer??...we have flow hives and normal ones avail to us in south africa..i want to be become a beekeeper,what i have noticed is,extractors are expensive here,with the flow you dont need those..i dont mind getting into the hive to check things over at all..the honey extracting is just easier and not so messy with the flow hives correct??thats the only diff between the 2 i guess..in SA,its the same price to buy a normal hive + all the tools and buying a flow hive..flow just makes things a little easier?hope this makes sense to you 😁
Hi Monique. Great question. The first thing to understand is from a beekeeping standpoint the flow hive is no different than the Langstroth hive in the way it provides a home for the bees and a brood nest for the queen. If you buy a flow hive you will receive a Langstroth brood chamber and a flow super. Because they are both a standard Langstroth size you can add a normal Langstroth honey super to a flow hive either above or below the flow super. Now that that is out of the way let's get to the meat of the question, cost and value. I know that where I live in Georgia, USA I can but a complete langstroth set up from Amazon for $169.00 US (www.amazon.com/NuBee-Frame-Starter-Beehive-Kit/dp/B08KSHN8QW/ref=sr_1_3_sspa) and a manual honey extractor for $143.00 US (www.amazon.com/BestEquip-Extractor-Stainless-Beekeeping-Equipment/dp/B078N3G1PT/ref=sr_1_5) That provides me with everything I need to get started for under 400.00. Now, If I want to get the cheapest OEM flow hive from honeyflow.com it would cost $649.00 US. Considering just the cost and value of what I need I would select the Langstroth set up. That said, you can also find Chinese knock-offs on Amazon for $299.00 US (www.amazon.com/Lwestine-Automatic-Beginning-Professional-Beekeepers/dp/B08XLZ9M8D) So to sum it all up, it is completely up to you based on your wants and needs. If you plane to become a full fledged beekeeper with more than two hives I would highly recommend the Langstroth set up because it is cheap and all of the components are interchangeable with all of your other hives. if you plan on just having a couple of garden hives to pollinate and collect honey for your family, the flow hives may be the way to go. Sorry for the long answer but I hope it answered your question. Take care.
Thank you so much for the reply!!i wil take a good look at those,and shop around to see the price diff.i only plant to keep a few,maybe 3-4,for myself/family and the rest i wil sell at markets,also thanks for the info in this video!i have to take a course first,wil be doing that very soon!
Flow Hive is what has got me interested in becoming a beekeeper! This year I’m doing all my research and learning and then I will be ordering one the end of the year so I start next spring! I watched another beekeeper who lives in Maine put out a video about the cost of starting as a beekeeper amd he listed everything from the hive, tools, extractor etc. to be up to about $2500. Granted you only have to buy some of this stuff once, but as a start it looked like a Flow Hive was actually cheaper. But I wish they gave out a discount for keepers buying a second, third etc. lol thanks for the video! I can’t wait to get my hive!!
The flow hive is a good way to start but like I said it costs a lot of money. On amazon you can get everything you need to start for 165.00 except the bees which will cost about 75.00 for a package so you can be beekeeping in two weeks for about 225.00. If you are just starting out let me tell you something I wish people had told me. Don't be afraid of getting stung. The bees DO NOT want to sting you. They know if they do they will die. All they want to do is work and defend the colony. Move slow and steady while in the hive and you will be fine. If you do get stung, use your smoker to blow smoke on the sting to dilute the attack pheromone released when the bee stings. Lastly, bee stings don't feel anything like you may remember as a kid, they don't hurt that bad and the sting only hurts for a while. For me, I don't even get a reaction to the stings anymore, it still hurts for a couple of minutes but I don't swell , itch, or anything like that. Let me know when you get your first colony. Very exciting.
Well, it might work in Australia but not here. DOES NOT WORK. We have 12 master beekeepers here (soon to be 14) who cannot make these darn things work and we do not allow their use in our club apiaries. Period. When 12 beekeepers with over 300+ years of combined experience cannot make them work while trying every trick the factory people tell us to try, there is a big problem. Plus, there is the fact that they took in tons of crowdsourced funding and still charge insane prices for their product. Ethics? Not in Australia business I guess. Good luck! Stick to traditional methods and save yourself a lot of headaches. At our State beekeeping meetings, I’d say almost 100% of the beekeepers say “Hell No” to FlowHive. If you want to try them just for fun, you can get the Chinese knockoff frames on Amazon or other websites. I assume they work the same (they don’t), and you only spend about 1/4-1/3 the price of the Australian version.
@@rickrapirio3798 well I already have my flow hive and my bees are ordered to arrive in April. I’m excited to get started. I’ve been seeing more good news then bad so I’m giving it a shot. Where are you located?
Question; you mentioned that in your first season you had to add additional bee hives due to bee growing in numbers. Does that means if you don’t have the open space that can safely house several beehives then one should reconsider getting into bee keeping? Thank you for sharing your experience with the Flowhive!!!
No not at all. I would suggest at least two hives for any beekeeper though. It is important to have a second hive to compare against the first and procure needed resources when necessary. Specifically if one of the hives goes queen-less you can grab a frame of eggs from the other hive and give it to the queen-less hive to make a new queen. A single hive doesn't provide that option. That said, bees do like to split their colonies each spring so having extra space doesn't hurt if you would like to keep all of the extra bees. If not just let them swarm away and populate the environment. :-) Great question. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and taking the time to drop a comment. Take care.
Thank you! Great video, just starting my interest in beekeeping. What is the total kilos of honey from one box did you harvest since you started with FlowHive system? I was told that the system lasts only about 2 yrs since the beeswax & propolis stick to the hexagonal cells..is that true? and how do you clean it?
I have harvested up to ~19.5 kilos from a single harvest. The frames are very sturdy and I have had them 4 seasons now and they still work flawlessly. Frederick Dunn on UA-cam is the Flow Hive Guru and he has been running them since they were first released and his are all still running so they do not wear out after two years. As far as cleaning them, I haven't had the need. The bees take care of that for me after each harvest. I hope this answered your question. Take care.
Hi I would like to know if it would be worth to buy a bee hive ,and try havesting honey from the two pear trees in my back yard the small pears fall from the trees and bees sworm around, alot. thanks Tom
As far as a getting a beehive, I am all for it. As far as harvesting honey from the pears trees in your back yard, well, the pear trees don't produce near enough nectar to create enough honey to harvest. The good news is that the bees will fly up to 6miles away to collect nectar to turn into honey so chances are pretty good if you get a couple of hives you will be harvesting honey. Now, as far as the pears on the ground go; have a good look at the bees on those pears, chances are they are yellow jacket wasps. Bees will land on and eat rotting fruit, especially in dearth when resources are lean, but they will only eat rotting fruit if nothing else is available. I have two pear trees directly in front of my hives and the bees rarely land on and eat the dropped and rotting fruit. The yellow jacket wasps on the other hand feast on them all day every day. I hope this answers your question. Get some hive and join the hobby. Take care.
How this is a great video! My toddler and I were watching a Honey Bee Video and it really inspired me to look into bee keeping. I spent the money and am waiting on the Flow Hive 2. You are the first video I came to and I am thankful that i did! This is a great video and thanks for sharing your information,
Yea Jaymee. Welcome to the hobby. Thanks for the kind words and for stopping in to watch my videos. I really appreciate you being out there. Take care.
I'm in Birmingham alabama, trying to start bee keeping. I'm so overwhelmed. Like I don't know what's keeping a bee healthy and happy. Gonna order the flow hive. Feels like it's a good starter. Give me some advice please 🙏
My advice is to watch a number of UA-cam beekeepers to familiarize yourself with the process of keeping bees. Also, when you are ready to begin beekeeping I would recommend starting with two hives. It is always good to have one to judge against the other and move resources around between the two of them when necessary. As for the flow hive, it is an expensive hive so just be aware you can start beekeeping for much less. You can buy a complete beehive kit on Amazon right now for under 150.00 , two for under 300.00 ( a.co/d/3oTuuDO ). Two Flow Hives would cost just under 2,000.00. The bees will be happy in either but your wallet will be happier with the cheaper setup. Also, if you are good with woodworking there is another option which would allow you to get info a flow type hive for much cheaper. ua-cam.com/video/tPdLojvoeYs/v-deo.html. I hope this answers your question and gets you started down the path to beekeeping. Take care.
if you live in certain areas like here in the uk, you may have to think about wether it's worth getting a flow hive, since once bees start collecting pollen from ivy and heather it will set fast, you won't get any flow at all, so how do you extract that honey should that happen?
That is a really good question and one I haven't had to answer as it has never happened to me. Maybe we will get lucky and another commenter will see this and have an answer. Sorry I couldn't be more help. If it ever happens to me I will be sure to point it out. Thanks for stopping in and also for taking the time to leave a comment. Take care.
@@BugFarmerBees no worries, i'm looking at getting one myself here in wales nxt year, i'm still researching options and learning myself, i have yet to come across anyone who has had a serious problem and am leaning heavily toward getting a flow after weighing the pros and cons for myself and what i want to get out of it. Since ivy in particular flowers toward the end of the year, my thoughts atm are if it were to happen, perhaps simply leave it for the bees for their winter supplies, probably more of a concern for commercial than a hobbyist anyways.
Funny you should ask. A colleague of mine lives in Ireland. He tried two of these and he got rid of them. He tried to make them work for three years. Never got a drop of honey from them. Bees hated them. He even sprayed HoneyBee healthy in them. Bees climbed all over them after that but never filled them. He was one of the many victims of FlowHive. He had countless calls and emails with the factory and many of the things they told him to try were either contradictory or seemed like they were grasping for straws. Typical experience from others I’ve spoken to across the USA, including my experience of trying to make two of them work in three different apiaries around Ohio. Finally gave them to a friend of mine in Colorado so he didn’t waste his money. He can’t make them work either and he is a master beekeeper with 26 years experience. He hates them more than I do.
@@rickrapirio3798 i have 5 now two set up another 2 starting 2023 and another next year, yes they work fine for me, i got two supers full in my first season from my first flow hive just from the summer flow, i used a paint brush to coat the flow frames with wax, they took to it straight off, i don't have oil seed rape in my area, and i take off the supers just as the ivy begins to flower or just before for varroa treatment, the girls can begin filling up winter stores from the ivy. i also found a neat little trick of checking the observation windows in the supers at night with a torch makes it easy to see when they begin filling the outer frames with nectar, you can see it glistening in the cells. i'm waiting for a review on the new paradise honey smart box system from Finland which is a flow type hive, it's a poly hive different flow system and half the price of the original flow hive. might get a couple of those if they turn out good.
Awesome. You are going to love beekeeping. The flow hive is a neat novelty hive. That said If you are just starting and want to get into the hobby inexpensively I would highly recommend a couple of cheap Langstroth hives. Notice I said a couple. It is wise to start with two hives so you can share resources between the two hives and you can judge the health of one hive by looking at the other. They are inexpensive to get into and you will learn beekeeping much quicker. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to reach out. I hope to see you in future comments.
My question is this. Once you harvest the honey, the bees really dont know. They are still seeing capped cells. How long do those capped, but empty cells sit there until the bees realize they are empty of honey.
That is a good question. The bee know right away. After emptying the frames and returning them to their original configuration the bees immediately begin removing the caps and resealing the seams between cells.
You are correct. The only wax on the flow frame is the wax the bees use to seal the frames and the cappings. After the harvest the bees will reseal the frames and remove the cappings. I hope that answers your question. Thank you for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to comment. Take care.
Great and informative for people considering one. I don't have one but thought the same thing you did abt not having to get into the hive. How boring wld beekeeping bee then?! Getting into them is the best part! Thanks for the bug farmer's insight. 🐝
With a flow hive you would probably draw off honey more frequently. I would never leave them on over winter . If honey sugared in those you would have to disassemble them to use them again. I have also heard of people breaking the plastic frames before.
Hi Craig. I wouldn't say you would have to draw them off more frequently but you can harvest a frame multiple times as long as the bees fill and cap it. I would never leave them on the hive over winter. I just don't think they were designed for that. Any dissembling them would be a pain. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and I hop you check out some of my other videos.
What do you do as a beekeeper when you have the wrong plants nearby that make the honey toxic. Plants such as the invasive rhododendron we have here all over the highlands of Scotland.
I wish I knew. Sorry I think this might be a question for @Frederick Dunn. Here is his link: ua-cam.com/users/FrederickDunnPhoto If anyone knows the answer it would be Fred.
Hey bug farmer, can I become a "bee keeper" with just 1 flow hive? I probably wouldn't be able to manage more than one hive and this flow hive seems so amazing! Can you give any tips ?
You can but it's always better to have two hives. The second doesn't need to be a flow hive. It's good to have a second colony to acquire resources when necessary.
I take it with the flow hive you still have to clean the wax off the frames so the bees can refill them, if this is the case then they have to be removed to clean them, is this correct?
No sir. You do not have to clean the wax off of the frames. After harvest, the bees get to work removing cap wax and repairing the wax used to seal the flow frames. After the final harvest of the season I let the bees repair the comb before I remove the flow frames for storage until the following spring. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and thank you for taking the time to comment. Great question. Take care.
I think they are very much so effected by the environment. In the Northern States, I have gotten maybe 1/3 the honey from a flow super as compared to a regular. Frames waxed, etc etc to prep and they only packed in 6 pints. When i swapped it out and put a regular super, they filled it within about 1.5 weeks.
Yea, when people scale their operations like we have it becomes ineffective to operate flow hives. They are more of a novelty or designed for the person who only wants a couple of hives.
My experience is exactly the same. We have banned their use in our club apiaries. Almost everyone at Ohio State Beekeepers meetings gives these things two thumbs down. We know of one person who has had partial success with them for two years then the bees stopped using it. He now hates FlowHive and feels he was ripped off. Fortunately he has a lot of money and can afford a mistake like that. We just want to help new people in our club avoid being ripped off and experiencing all the headaches and frustrations.
Price and winter storage. If you only plan on ever having just a couple of garden hives and price is not an issue; yes, these would be the hives for you.
I would assume you will have no problem giving excess bees away. Join your local bee club and make some contacts. Or..... Just let them fly away in a swarm. Thanks for stopping in and taking the time to drop a comment. I really appreciate it. Take care.
Unicorn here. Just bought a house with 2 acres and lots of flowers and I thought about bees. One question I had about the flow is does it saved more of the wax on the comb so the bees dont have to rebuild it or do you have to extract it? I have to be missing something here.
Hi Jason. You It is a great idea to save as much drawn comb as possible for use in the following season or new hives. After extracting the honey with an extractor let the bees clean out the frames simply by setting them out. The bees will find them and make quick work of recovering any honey the extractor doesn't get. When the bee are done cleaning the frames it is a good idea to freeze the drawn frames for 72 hours and then place them in a garbage bag for storage. If not the wax moths can get to them and ruin them. next season just before the flow add the empty but drawn frames to a super and set it on you hive. The bees will fill it quick. :-) To see an example of the bees cleaning the frames for you watch the massive harvest video and you will see us push out the wet honey frames to be cleaned and at the end you will see the bees cleaning them. Here is the link: ua-cam.com/video/XBlugjPQJMQ/v-deo.html Thanks for stopping in and for taking the time to comment. I appreciate you. Take care.
@@BugFarmerBees thanks for the reply. I was meaning basically how does the wax work with the flow super but I have been watching dunn's videos and he said the caps go but the comb wax just gets repairs led by the bees.
Flow hive is what really got me into bee keeping. I got mine back in 2015 when they did their crowdfunding. I buy the cheap Chinese supers now when I need them. You can get 3-4 of them for what you can get a single flow super for, and their just as good. I think it’s sad that they’ve priced themselves into the space they are in. Not sure if they figure that people are only going to buy one Maybe two of these and be done. So that’s why.. but that’s where they are.
I agree 100% Scramblerdude! I didn't even put my flow hives out this year. Are flow was interrupted by a 3 week freeze that completely decimated our flow. There is always next year :-)
@@ricko2301 eBay has a ton of them. From what I can tell their all from the same place just different US and overseas sellers so you will find a spread in the price of about $20 or so.
Im still confused on why people think the flow hive is a larger investment. if you do not have to buy honey extracting equipment (which with traditional hive you would have to) then to me it comes out to about the same investment of money.
Hi John, I see your point but consider this; with traditional hives you can extract with the crush and strain method and not spend an extra dime. Don't get me wrong, The flow hive is a neat hive. I have two of them. That said, I get much more honey from my cheapo langstroth hives. When I was first starting out the Flow Hive seemed like a safe way for me to get into the hobby and minimize my chances of being stung. I learned pretty quickly the only way to be a beekeeper can minimize the chances of being stung is to learn how to work with bees which comes with time. Now my flow hives ore more of a novelty hive for me. I do still like them though. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to drop a comment. I really appreciate it. I hope to see you in future comments. Take care.
@@BugFarmerBees from what I experience and the beekeepers I talked too. Most start out that way but soon move to buying an extractor. not many that I have seen stay with that way of doing it. How do you extract honey now? when not using the flow hive of course.
That is true for a few hives, but as soon as you go bigger, you only need one set of extraction equipment, but the Flow Hives add up. The Flow Hives are perfect for small scale / home beekeeping, but for commercial use, they are too expensive.
I implemented the unique configuration yesterday. The video should be out in about two weeks :-) Don't you hate it when people do that :-). Thanks for stopping in. I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Honey is the cheapest product you can get from the hive and if you prefer getting bee wax, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, bee venom then the ordinary hives are the choice. Flow hive is not for business rather for a home toy stuff where your honey needs are fulfilled. Commercial use is nil
Well said. It is a novelty hive but also a great gateway to invite new beekeepers into the hobby. Myself, I prefer standard Langstroth boxes. That said I dutifully set up my flow hives every year :-)
I'm not sure why you couldn't collect pollen, propolis or venom with Flow Hives. You'd need an extra box to collect lots of royal jelly, but that is the same with regular hives - no difference here. And I still have to rotate old frames out of service and get some wax from it. The main reason why the FH is not suitable for businesses is the price tag. It is just too expensive if you have to buy dozens or more. And the honey harvesting itself is probably too slow too.
Hi Emily. Ideally, I want to keep all of my bees in their hives at least until after harvest. The more bees collecting nectar the better the harvest. That said; If, after the spring harvest, and if the hives want to swarm in the summer or fall, I will let them go. Replenish the feral bee population and get new queens for next year :-). Thanks for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to leave a comment. Take care.
I would not recommend allowing bees to swarm. It's not responsible beekeeping because the swarm you let go may end up taking residence in someone's house and cost them a lot of money to have the bees removed. I have all the hives I want and don't want to make splits to gain more hive nor do I want to loose bees because most often a swarmed hive does not make honey that year or at least enough to support a honey super. What I do instead is throughout the early spring until summer I inspect my hives every 9 days and at the very early sign of swarming ( a egg or white jelly in a swarm cup) I remove the queen only. Once the queen is removed the hive thinks they have swarmed and they go about making the new queen they have started. After 4 days I go back to the hive and remove all the excessive queen cells to prevent virgin swarms and only leave one or two to hatch. This is called a artificial swarm. By doing this you retain your workforce of bees to make honey and your bees didn't swarm to possibly become a nuisance to someone.
I don't know for sure but I suspect it will work better there than it does in the States. The hive will work and function anywhere. A tropical environment means more nectar from more flowers.
Thanks. I have been collecting copper heat-syncs from inside of computers and I may actually melt them down and see if I can make something. Every time I pull a computer apart to get one I think of you. :-) You are turning me into a scrapper. Actually it's hard not to be one you realize all of the $$ just laying around everywhere. :-)
Hi Trinity. Yes, the bees will produce their own wax. If you have access to beeswax I would recommend brushing some wax on the flow frames to encourage the bees to take to it. Great to hear from you and welcome to the beekeeping community.
In my opinion, having the honeycomb's already made should allow the Bee's to focus their attention and energy to making honey, and taking care of the Queen. But then again, what do I know?
You know a lot. That is exactly how it works. That is why we beekeepers see drawn comb as gold. It saves the bees a lot of time and honey. Great comment!
In my experience I find (I haven’t tried all Apimaye products but I see no better queen system (Queen defender)…the multipurpose feeders…and the bottom/pollen boards…on the market) Apimaye to 🐝 the best enterence entry &/or expert level keepers…I do wanna try flow but it will bee a custom built if/when I do.
The Chinese frames and the flow hive frames work the same iv tried the both and the bees take very well to them after added bees wax with a paint roller. If your a good wood worker you can buy the frames for $120 and build the box yourself in mass i ran 16 "flow hives" last year and this year ill be running 32 this year they are fantastic
That is awesome. Would you be willing to share a picture or video of your operation. I would love to show that many flow hives in use on my channel. It would be neat to see. My email address is on the "About" tab of the Bug Farmer channel page.
@@BugFarmerBees maybe next year. I'm not ready to give people all my ideas... If I did that all the products I use/make everything would go up in price...
I know this video is a year old, I was curious about your thoughts on the flow hive frames... People have said they are too heavy when full, especially splitting the hive, as well as the mechanics of the boards, do break and you are stuck buying in sets of 3 or 5 frames as a package deal (and that is a expensive cost) instead of individual frames, just wondering if this has happened to you ?
The frames are heavy when full but I guess that is a good thing because you drain them into jars directly from the hive. As far as the frames reliability, I have to say I have been operating the same two flow hives for four years and haven't had the first mechanical issue with them. The frames are just as solid now as when I first started using them. I hope this helps. Thanks for stopping in to have a look, I hope I see you in future comments. Take care.
In the flow hive there are no cappings. When you split the comb to drain the honey the caps are generally left in place. The bees will remove the cappings and repair the cells after harvest. Then they will refill the flow frames if the flow is still in progress. Great question. Thanks for stopping in to have a look.
OOohhh you mentioned me :) Thank you so much! No question that the number one complaint is the cost of the hive. I'm glad to know that this hive design was at the foundation of your inspiration to keep bees. You are also spot on that we need to inspect and know about the bees and what's going on down below the Flow-Supers. I can share that this is my 7th year with the frames and you will need to clean them eventually, but they are not wearing out "yet". Just get the super and put it on any strong colony you have :) YOU have a GREAT beekeeping Spring! :)
I mention you all the time. You my friend are the OG of the UA-cam beekeepers. I have been watching your videos from the beginning. You and Jim at Vino Farm have had a huge influence on my beekeeping and my YouTubing. I know I can always count on your channel for solid information and great filmography. Moreover, you are the reason I have chickens and a home weather station. I am working to improve my beekeeping this year and not focus on the honey or the number of colonies, but rather the bees and the process. That said, I am a tinkerer and will continue to try new things and approach the issues of beekeeping from a different perspective than most. I hope I don't let you down as a virtual mentor. Thanks for stopping in to have a look at some of my videos and for taking the time to comment, but mostly for just being out there. I really appreciate you. Take care.
Literally all the company has to do is license out for north America and Europe to local factories and allow the Americans to dig into it. Guarantee they'll find a way to drive production costs down to a 1/3 of what they are now, they're excellent at that. Slash the price 50% and still walk away with an even higher profit margin and you've made it possible to double or triple sales because it's now more affordable. Again, I don't know why this company isn't doing this already.
This guy makes me want to buy one or two I've got a big garden and lots of flowers but I don't know anything about bees but it looks like the Flow hive hybrid is definitely the way to go for a first time beekeeper
@@kevinheflin4375 me too... i had seen a video criticising the flow hive... but this was more informative (can't remember the other video) .. I have been looking at beekeeping for a couple of years but haven't tried yet..
i am in australia and will look at flow hives again.. thanks
You have the Canadian beekeeper who is an awesome guy to listen to
Honest man who knows how to talk about a product and its experience with it. Going into bee keeping, New subscriber, thank you! 🎉
Thank you. I sincerely appreciate that. I always provide an honest review. Even if the products are provided to me at no cost. I like to spread the word about good products and how to make products better. I also like to call out bad products so people don't waste their money on them. Cash is too hard to come by these days and doesn't need to be wasted on things that don't provide good value or utility. Thank you for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it.
Great video! I've have kept bees for about 10 years, but chose to give my 2 hives to a friend, along with all my supplies and equipment, when we moved last June. I'm looking to "start over", and am always looking for the latest and greatest. I think the most intimidating part of beekeeping for me when I started was the robbing and extracting process, and I made plenty of mistakes before I finally figured out the best process for my situation. I suspect that is the case for most new, inexperienced beekeepers. To that end, the Flow Hive has a lot of appeal, especially to the person looking for a great hobby and sweet rewards.
I agree. If the plan is to have just a couple of garden hives, and just a couple of garden hives, the Flow Hive is a great solution. If you don't want to spend the money on the full blown flow hive I have another video that will help you build a couple on the cheap: ua-cam.com/video/tPdLojvoeYs/v-deo.html or you can et a cheap Chinese knock-off that will serve the same purpose.
The most insightful and interesting comment made is the information that each flow frame may provide different tasting honey due to the bees filling the frames sequentially over time. A Langstroth extraction usually combines frames to extract honey (although you could extract each frame individually to get the same result) I’m in the same position as the presenter in starting out beekeeping and have already made the decision to look at, and make, a Top Bar hive for my next beehive, simply due to the relative costs of the Flow system. You can mix and match frames so I think it would be possible to use the flow frames individually in a TopBar or Langstroth hive (with a purpose made opening). Either way many thanks for your video and your enthusiastic presentation.
Yes, it would be completely possible to use the flow frames in a top bar hive. You can actually pick up knock-off flow frames from Amazon for cheap to give it a try. If you end up trying it share the results with me. I would love to hear about it.
@@BugFarmerBees Thank you for your reply. I am in Australia and don’t have the harsh winters many responders talk about here, but we have other issues, such as heat that we have to contend with. I also live not far from the flow hive inventors.
I can tell you are very passionate about bee keeping and your extensive research is now being passed down to myself. It was a brilliant video start to finish. I am not a beekeeper, however, I have a strong desire to do so and I have even more courage now to become a bee keeper myself.
I really appreciate the kind words.Beekeeping is an addictive and rewarding hobby. There really is no need to spend a ton of money to get started. You can get yourself a couple of NUCs from a supplier and either order or build a couple of beehives and you are off to the races. You will be harvesting your own honey as soon as next summer. All of your neighbors with flowers and gardens will love you too :-). If you haven't looked into Bee Castle hives I can highly recommend them. a.co/d/6fjSz7z , they are quality hives and offer good value and utility for the money. You can get a couple of full kits for little money. Or if you choose to go the Flow Hive direction you can get themm from honeyflow.com Welcome to the hobby. ;-)
@@BugFarmerBees thank you for the kind words and advice
Thanks for the review. Fair, comprehensive and entertaining! I've been a beekeeper in the past and have been looking into the Flow Hive system as an option, so it's great to get some insights and input from those, like yourself, who are using them. Awesome job!
Thanks for the kind words Peter and for taking time to leave a comment. I am you found the video useful. Take care.
I remember seeing the start when they were raising money on the website. I thought about it back then but unfortunately I was living in a crappy city neighbors too close and well no flowers for the bees. So I thought it wouldn't be right. Now I living in a town with more nature around and starting to think about it again. Specially since the neighbors have a little bit more distance. I need to learn more about bee keeping before I purchase. Thank you for the video it's very informative specially for someone like me who is thinking about starting.
Hi and thank you for stopping in to have a look. All I can say is I highly recommend beekeeping if you have the space for a couple of hives in your yard. You won't regret it as a hobby. It's like having outdoor fish tanks that provide a bucket of honey twice a year. That said, I do like the flow hives but at this point in time I would recommend a couple of inexpensive Langstroth hives to get started. Later if you want the novelty of a flow hive then either get one or build one. Again, thank you for stopping in to have a look at my video and I hope to see you in future comments. On this channel I like to keep it light and have fun and provide a look at hobbyist back yard beekeeping. You can learn from my mistakes and you can teach me with your successes. Take care.
@@BugFarmerBees Thank you !
Thank you for a great video! I appreciate your pros and cons, and you are easy to listen to. I will keep watching, and as a first year (attempting) beekeeper, I will/may consider trying a Flow Hive at some point. Wishing you a healthy bee season.
Thank you Deb. I appreciate you stopping in to have a look. It's my fourth year and I am still (attempting) to be a beekeeper. The bees still teach me something every day. Thanks for stopping in to have a look.
I've been considering flow hive every since their Kickstarter ( yes wish I had done it then)
Now back to a do I or don't I ?
Yours is the first video that really helps me understand what I looking at. Thank you so much. ! Great video!
I am really happy you found it useful. I do suggest that regardless of whether you choose the flow hive or not you take up beekeeping. It is a very useful and enjoyable hobby. I appreciate you stopping in top have a look and taking time to comment. Take care.
Thank you. I'm not a bee keeper but am looking to get involved and you sold me on it.
Be careful. It is addictive.
Fantastic explanation, very objective and complete. I like the fact that you gave credit to the creators of this invention and provide you personal comments around it... I might start mine soon, thanks to this video..!
You are welcome Arturo. I appreciate you stopping in to have a look and taking time to drop a comment. Take care.
Totally agree with what you have said here. I know zero about beekeeping & stumbled across a flow hive video on here yesterday & now i'm starting to get really interested in beekeeping & seriously considering trying this out.
Yes they are expensive but for new people I think they are great & if these hives bring more new people into beekeeping in their backyard then that can only be a good thing
Thanks Steve. Just be careful, once you start beekeeping you get hooked in a hurry. Next thing you know you'll have 20 hives and side business selling honey. :-)
Thank you for the good information as I am looking to get into beekeeping
Excellent. I am happy you found the information useful. I warn you beekeeping is very addictive but at least honey is selling for 10.00 a pound :-)
Thank you for the great information without a lot of filler. Cheers with honey on tap!
Thank you. I try hard :-)
Good to find you and excellent video,I’m a yr out building up the property getting it ready to start a small business in honey,looking forward to watching more from you.
Excellent. I am building up the apiary and m y honey business too. Thank you for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to comment. I hope to see you in future comments. Take care.
I have watched many of the flow hive videos and Frederick Dunn. I love how cedar and the crew tell you how you can make some of your own gadgets or variations on gadgets etc rather than buying the actual product. The frames are brilliant and its always explained that you can use then in a normal Langstroth box. I have mine ready to go next spring, i cant wait.
I remember the anticipation. It was a long winter for me that year :-)
Nice Nunchaku on your tool rack and thank you for going through the history and explaining the Flow Hive!
I keep those up there in case bees come after me :-)
are the nunchuks for pesty bees?
Ha. You saw those. We are a Tae-kwon-do family. I hope you stay to check out some of my newer videos. Thanks for stopping in to have a look. I appreciate you taking the time to drop a comment and I hope to see you in future comments.
Thank you for this excellent presentation. I have a flow hive on order & am looking forward to sharing the experience & knowledge with my grandchildren. I therefore consider it to be good value for the money
Excellent. Be careful, beekeeping is addictive. :-)
I've been watching bee related videos off and on over the last couple years. Today I ordered two Flow Hive 2's, and now looking at as many bee videos as I can find :) Looking forward to the new adventure!
Hi Virginia. Great to hear. You are going to love beekeeping. Just remember two things: 1. Always move slow and steady when in your hive. The bees generally won't mind you being in the hive if you are slow and steady. They don't like jarring moves or strong vibrations. 2. The bees will punish you when you make a mistake. They, the bees, want you to be a great beekeeper and will nudge you in the right direction with a tiny sting or two when you make a mistake as a way to prevent you from make the mistake a second time. I will be harvesting my flow hives in a couple of weeks so you can stop in to have a look. Take care and have a great day. Welcome to beekeeping. :-)
Drop a no bs review for us, me and my wife are chomping at the bit to get one.
I just bought my first flow hive 2, red cedar, 6 frame, new not used on sale for $129.00 with free shipping. I’ve been thinking of beekeeping for a couple of years now but just couldn’t afford the initial cost of $500 to $700 just for a hive so when I came across this deal I first thought it was a typo because everywhere else they are $500 dollars or more. I just ordered it yesterday 10/27/2022. At that price I couldn’t pass it up! I’m thinking about moving some money from savings and buying a second one.
Followed all of you!
Thanks for the information, we are just getting started!
Thank you Cammille. Let me be the first to welcome you to the hobby. I hope to see you in future comments. :-)
Great video ! I’m living a beekeepers life vicariously through you and other beekeepers!
I have nothing but smiles for you :-)... Take care.🙂
You’ll love beekeeping! Just avoid FlowHive because it’s not worth the money nor headaches.
never owned bee hives but now want a flowhoney bee hive. where is a great website/videos on the basics of bee keeping and maintaing bee hives. Dan in Rhode Island
Hi Dan. It is a wonderful hobby. I warn you though it is addictive. :-) Thank you for stopping in to have a look and taking the time to comment. I hope to see you in future comments. Take acre.
@@BugFarmerBees I am considering buying on complete set up of the flow honey set up along with equipment. It does seem like a lot of money but well built and makes collecting the honey easier?
Thank you so much I am glad that you compared it the Langstroth hive pros/cons good job!! 🐝 Bee Blessed 😊
Thank you. I really appreciate you sharing your time with me and taking the time to comment. I hope to see you in future comments. Tale care.
Just what i was looking for. Great video! Thank u!
You're welcome. Thank you for stopping in to have a look.
Thanks for he information, I’ve considered a flow hive for some time now. Very helpful
You're welcome.
Good honest assessment, thank you.
Thanks. I am happy you received value from it. Take care.
I love doing research before buying. And I just loved this video! Only thing that really caught my attention was needing to buy another hive for them to grow another Queen. Very helpful information!!!
I am happy you found it useful. I hope you stick around and enjoy some of my other videos. Also, thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. It helps the channel. Take care.
New subscriber. This is an excellent video. Well articulated. Well opinionated. Thank you for sharing your experiences! I am wanting to get into bees and think this may be the way for me to do so. I have a lot to learn in the mean time. Cheers
Welcome potential beekeeper. Be careful, beekeeping is addictive. :-)
I adore my flow hive.
First of all I would never have got into beekeeping if it hadn't been for this.
I love how each frame can have a completely different taste.
I love not squishing bees during the process. (This should be the number one reason to use this method)
I have called upon experienced beekeepers in my area to help with the management of the hive and I have learned a lot, but I know I have a lot more to learn.
The cost is high but for the pleasure my bees knees give me it is fair. I don't have to buy an extractor.
I am happy you joined the world of beekeeping. It is a happy hobby :-)
Does it work well?? How much is it and is it worth the cost?
lol i dont know who you are ... but you are my favorite beekeeper to listen to
Thanks B.H. I appreciate you stopping in to have a look and taking the time to comment.
Thank you for your great information to help me decide whether to become a bee keeper.
I say DO IT! With or without a flow hive it is a great hobby. It's like having fish tanks outside that give you honey. :-) Thanks for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it and hope to see you in future comments. have a great new year.
Great information on the flow hive!! Enjoyed the whole video.
I‘m very interested in the Flow Hive. Great video. Merci!
Merci Jan de s'être arrêté sur ma chaîne pour jeter un coup d'œil. J'espère que l'information a été utile. Prends soin de toi.
Thanks for the info. I am looking into getting a Flow Hive. Seems the price has come down a bit.
I am happy I could help. Welcome to beekeeping. :-)
great review of the flow hive. Thank you for the information and your perspective
You are quite welcome. Thanks for stopping in to have a look. Take care.
🦄 Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge.🐝 I've been looking at clear plastic keg set ups. We live in town. So it would be a small hive and having the ability to see everything would be a big plus for the grandchildren. Just marinating on the idea.
They are a lot of fun and they do work. Just remember, you will have to inspect the hive from time to time. That said, you will get hooked on bees. They are very neat little creatures. Thanks for stopping in to have a look Christine. I really appreciate you taking time to comment. Take care.
Thank you for sharing this. Lots of decisions to be made.
This may be premature but.... Welcome to the hobby :-)
really helpful video. i've been thinking about getting into beekeeping. i have a bunch of questions i'd like to ask you about getting started a flow started in my back yard. if i sent you an photo, would you be able to give me (and other viewers) advice on the best location for the hive(s)? thanks!!
Hi Jeff. The best location is one facing south-east. The goal id to capture that morning sunlight on the landing board all season to wake the girls up and get them out working. A full sun area is also preferred. It's great you are getting into beekeeping it is a very rewarding hobby. If I may provide one more piece of advice I would suggest starting out with two hives. It will provide you with a comparison and the ability to correct mistakes in one hive with resources from the other. Good luck on your adventure.
Very nice video! I don't know if I'll ever be able to get into beekeeping, but I found the flow hive because of their focus on not disturbing the bees while you harvest the honey. I've seen people discuss it so much but usually, they don't focus on the price, good to know there is such a big difference between the flow and Langstroth hives.
One question, have you noticed if the bees reuse their combs after a harvest? I know you break them vertically, but after reading that the bees use a lot more energy to make wax, I wondered if the flow hive helped with that by not forcing them to remake it all, So I started wondering if they just patch the combs or eat the wax and reuse it, helping them be more comfortable and maybe even be able to produce more honey.
Great question. Yes the flow frames are reused after harvest. After I drain each frame I return the comb back to its closed position. The bees will immediately begin to repair the comb and start storing honey. Because the synthetic comb is mostly food grade plastic, the bees only need to reseal a seam that runs through the center of the comb. It takes no time at all. The bees are usually storing honey again within 48 hours. Beyond that, I hope you do get into beekeeping. It is very necessary to our environment, provides pollination to the plants, honey for your jar, and extra money in your pocket. Moreover, it's very rewarding and addictive. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and also for taking the time to comment. Take care.
@@BugFarmerBees If the frames are split in the middle temporarily and the caps on both of the sides are intact, what informs the bees to take away the caps and start over
Excellent honest thorough concise review! Subscribing now
Thank you so much L.Johnston. I really appreciate the kudos. Thanks for subbing and I hope to see you in future comments. Take care.
So will a Flow work by itself season after season or are other Langstroth/ additional Flow hives required for it to maintain it’s bee🐝 population?
The flow hive will work by itself season after season but to my knowledge no one over-winters bees in a flow hive with the flow super on the hive. I could be wrong but I haven't seen it. Remember, the brood box of a flow hive is a standard Langstroth hive body and is completely interchangeable with all Langstroth equipment of the same size. At the end of the nectar flow, and when my flow hive harvest is finished I remove the flow super and replace it with a medium super for the girls to store the fall flow and any supplemental sugar syrup I feed them in preparation for winter. I hope this answers your question. Take care.
I sure wish I could. But great information. Thanks
Thanks Chason for stopping in to have a look. I really appreciate you taking the time to comment. Take care.
I would love to be a beekeeper and I have absolutely know knowledge. I appreciate your information but I'm still lost 😂
I will learn. Thanks again.
I suggest watching my old videos, @Vino Far videos from the beginning, watch @Frederick Dunn. That should give you all you need to know to start beekeeping. It is a fun journey. I started watching @vino Farm and @Frederick Dunn for a year before I got my first hive. I learned much.
Perfect video. Just what we needed to know.
Thanks Papa Squach. I love the name.
I am a beginner and I just bought my first flow hive. Thank you for your introduction!
Excellent!!! Bees are a lot of fun especially if you like solving riddles. They are always posing new problems for us to solve. I would have to say the hardest thing about beekeeping though is remembering all of the bees names. After all the queen lays up to 1500 eggs a day. :-) Make sure to look around your area (3 mile radius) during your first year and then take time to notice the changes next year in the same area. More flowers, fuller gardens, etc.. Seeing the change in my area after I started was the most amazing thing ever. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and welcome to the hobby. I am sure you will find it rewarding. Take care. :-)
Glad you are beekeeping. Too bad you’re going to have headaches with FlowHive. They don’t work. Stick with standard frames and supers. You’ll thank me later. We have banned their use in ALL our club apiaries.
Great video! I've been researching to get into bee keeping with a Langstroth for the last week but was on the fence because of the time it takes to harvest that I don't really have spare. Until today when I discovered the Flow Hive and completely blew my mind. It fixes everything I was worried about. Honey on tap, yes please.
My only new worry is since you mention each frame tastes different, would it make it harder to sell/please returning customers since they would be expecting the same great taste?
Hi Ello, All honey sells well. If you want you can mix it all together before you bottle the honey. Personally I like the different flavors. :-)
Looking to get into beekeeping and the Flow Hive seems like a great box. Here is my thing as I know colonies split and you get more hives. What if you do not want more hives but maybe one maybe two total??? How do you manage that aspect so you don't have a field of 200 boxes in 10 years?...LOL
BTW- Great review and fact you still have to do basic bee keeping task even with a Flow Hive. I wondered the same thing as well and you answered my question.
First, thank you for stopping in to have a look and I am happy it helps. Now for swarm management. If you want to maintain only two hives you have a couple of options. The option you choose really depends on your goals; honey, or pollination. If you simply want to pollinate your garden and surrounding area you can simply let the bees swarm whenever they decide they need too. Generally bees will swarm once or twice per year per colony depending on their numbers, space, and available resources needed to sustain the colony. Each time they swarm they will leave 1/3 to 1/2 the bee population in the hive. If your goal is honey you will want to prevent the swarm and keep the bees in the hive. The larger the colony the more honey at harvest. Generally this requires you, the beekeeper, to add boxes, cut out queen cells, perform internal demaree splits, clip the queens wing, etc.... There are many ways to stop swarming but all of them require you, the beekeeper, to be on top of the activity of the hive. That is the short answer. There are a lot of great channels out there that can help you with your journey. Frederick Dunn( @FrederickDunn ), Vino Farm( @vinofarm ), Bob Binnie ( @bobbinnie9872 ) , Mike Barry( @MikeBarryBees ), Kamon Reynolds( @kamonreynolds ), and many more. Make sure to check out the older videos too as there is always a lot of great information available. All of that said, I hope you come back to my channel for my weekly videos, I always try to keep it light and fun. I am not a teacher but you can certainly learn from my successes and failures. Sorry for the wall of text but I hope this answers your questions. Take care.
Is one flow hive not enough as a beginner bee keeper? These are pricey but I want to be a beekeeper
So, the Flow Hive is a gateway drug for beekeepers?! I can believe that. I started out looking at Flow Hives. Pretty sure it was Jim, over at Vino Farms, that convinced me not to get one (yet). This will be my 3rd year, and still haven't overwintered any bees yet, but I keep trying, and at least I have some drawn comb for the nucs when the get here. Central Maine
You have been keeping bees for three years and they never make it through the winter? You may want to look at my hive heater videos. That should keep your bees toasty warn throughout the winter. Part 1 of 4 : ua-cam.com/video/ulG_bWTMZBU/v-deo.html
@@BugFarmerBees LOL. First winter I didn't strap my lids down. Wind and rain blew them off and then the temp dropped to 30 degrees that night. Last year I blew out my knee in July and could get to my hives until after Thanksgiving. Crossing my fingers for this year.
Loved the video! Thank you. Quick question for overwintering i was thinking the same lines with a medium normal frame super. Is there any brand of medium super that fits better on a flow hive 2, than others?
That is a great question. Let me go to the shop really quick and measure some boxes. Hold please.... Okay, after a run to the shop I have to say any box that is built with 3/4" stock should be fine. All Langstroth internal dimensions are the same. The only difference is the thickness of the wood they are built with. My flow hive is built with 3/4" cedar so any box built with 3/4" stock should be fine. I have some boxes that are 7/8 and even 1". I hope this helps and answers you question. Take care.
@Bug Farmer Thank you!! Really appreciate it! Love your videos. Learned soo much! Appreciate all your hard work and dedication to get newbies like me on the right path 🥰💓
I would be interested if it had a horizontal version.
I think it would work well in a horizontal hive. Actually there is a fellow here on UA-cam who builds horizontal flow hives. Have a look at his Channel @Horizontalbees ua-cam.com/channels/EUhmz1QuiiivRosypI_-hg.html
I have a question for you if you have the time to answer??...we have flow hives and normal ones avail to us in south africa..i want to be become a beekeeper,what i have noticed is,extractors are expensive here,with the flow you dont need those..i dont mind getting into the hive to check things over at all..the honey extracting is just easier and not so messy with the flow hives correct??thats the only diff between the 2 i guess..in SA,its the same price to buy a normal hive + all the tools and buying a flow hive..flow just makes things a little easier?hope this makes sense to you 😁
Hi Monique. Great question. The first thing to understand is from a beekeeping standpoint the flow hive is no different than the Langstroth hive in the way it provides a home for the bees and a brood nest for the queen. If you buy a flow hive you will receive a Langstroth brood chamber and a flow super. Because they are both a standard Langstroth size you can add a normal Langstroth honey super to a flow hive either above or below the flow super. Now that that is out of the way let's get to the meat of the question, cost and value. I know that where I live in Georgia, USA I can but a complete langstroth set up from Amazon for $169.00 US (www.amazon.com/NuBee-Frame-Starter-Beehive-Kit/dp/B08KSHN8QW/ref=sr_1_3_sspa) and a manual honey extractor for $143.00 US (www.amazon.com/BestEquip-Extractor-Stainless-Beekeeping-Equipment/dp/B078N3G1PT/ref=sr_1_5) That provides me with everything I need to get started for under 400.00. Now, If I want to get the cheapest OEM flow hive from honeyflow.com it would cost $649.00 US. Considering just the cost and value of what I need I would select the Langstroth set up. That said, you can also find Chinese knock-offs on Amazon for $299.00 US (www.amazon.com/Lwestine-Automatic-Beginning-Professional-Beekeepers/dp/B08XLZ9M8D) So to sum it all up, it is completely up to you based on your wants and needs. If you plane to become a full fledged beekeeper with more than two hives I would highly recommend the Langstroth set up because it is cheap and all of the components are interchangeable with all of your other hives. if you plan on just having a couple of garden hives to pollinate and collect honey for your family, the flow hives may be the way to go. Sorry for the long answer but I hope it answered your question. Take care.
Thank you so much for the reply!!i wil take a good look at those,and shop around to see the price diff.i only plant to keep a few,maybe 3-4,for myself/family and the rest i wil sell at markets,also thanks for the info in this video!i have to take a course first,wil be doing that very soon!
There are "auto hives" on ebay with 2 levels and 7 flow frames for less than $300. Is this not the same thing?
Yes, they would operate the same as the flow hives but I cannot speak to their quality.
Flow Hive is what has got me interested in becoming a beekeeper! This year I’m doing all my research and learning and then I will be ordering one the end of the year so I start next spring! I watched another beekeeper who lives in Maine put out a video about the cost of starting as a beekeeper amd he listed everything from the hive, tools, extractor etc. to be up to about $2500. Granted you only have to buy some of this stuff once, but as a start it looked like a Flow Hive was actually cheaper. But I wish they gave out a discount for keepers buying a second, third etc. lol thanks for the video! I can’t wait to get my hive!!
The flow hive is a good way to start but like I said it costs a lot of money. On amazon you can get everything you need to start for 165.00 except the bees which will cost about 75.00 for a package so you can be beekeeping in two weeks for about 225.00. If you are just starting out let me tell you something I wish people had told me. Don't be afraid of getting stung. The bees DO NOT want to sting you. They know if they do they will die. All they want to do is work and defend the colony. Move slow and steady while in the hive and you will be fine. If you do get stung, use your smoker to blow smoke on the sting to dilute the attack pheromone released when the bee stings. Lastly, bee stings don't feel anything like you may remember as a kid, they don't hurt that bad and the sting only hurts for a while. For me, I don't even get a reaction to the stings anymore, it still hurts for a couple of minutes but I don't swell , itch, or anything like that. Let me know when you get your first colony. Very exciting.
Well, it might work in Australia but not here. DOES NOT WORK. We have 12 master beekeepers here (soon to be 14) who cannot make these darn things work and we do not allow their use in our club apiaries. Period. When 12 beekeepers with over 300+ years of combined experience cannot make them work while trying every trick the factory people tell us to try, there is a big problem.
Plus, there is the fact that they took in tons of crowdsourced funding and still charge insane prices for their product. Ethics? Not in Australia business I guess. Good luck!
Stick to traditional methods and save yourself a lot of headaches. At our State beekeeping meetings, I’d say almost 100% of the beekeepers say “Hell No” to FlowHive. If you want to try them just for fun, you can get the Chinese knockoff frames on Amazon or other websites. I assume they work the same (they don’t), and you only spend about 1/4-1/3 the price of the Australian version.
@@rickrapirio3798 well I already have my flow hive and my bees are ordered to arrive in April. I’m excited to get started. I’ve been seeing more good news then bad so I’m giving it a shot. Where are you located?
Question; you mentioned that in your first season you had to add additional bee hives due to bee growing in numbers. Does that means if you don’t have the open space that can safely house several beehives then one should reconsider getting into bee keeping? Thank you for sharing your experience with the Flowhive!!!
No not at all. I would suggest at least two hives for any beekeeper though. It is important to have a second hive to compare against the first and procure needed resources when necessary. Specifically if one of the hives goes queen-less you can grab a frame of eggs from the other hive and give it to the queen-less hive to make a new queen. A single hive doesn't provide that option. That said, bees do like to split their colonies each spring so having extra space doesn't hurt if you would like to keep all of the extra bees. If not just let them swarm away and populate the environment. :-) Great question. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and taking the time to drop a comment. Take care.
Cool video mate!!!! Subscribed
Cheers from Australia 🇦🇺
Thanks for stopping in to have a look and taking the time to drop a comment. I hope your summer is going well down under and your bees are flying :-)
Thank you! Great video, just starting my interest in beekeeping.
What is the total kilos of honey from one box did you harvest since you started with FlowHive system? I was told that the system lasts only about 2 yrs since the beeswax & propolis stick to the hexagonal cells..is that true? and how do you clean it?
I have harvested up to ~19.5 kilos from a single harvest. The frames are very sturdy and I have had them 4 seasons now and they still work flawlessly. Frederick Dunn on UA-cam is the Flow Hive Guru and he has been running them since they were first released and his are all still running so they do not wear out after two years. As far as cleaning them, I haven't had the need. The bees take care of that for me after each harvest. I hope this answered your question. Take care.
Hi I would like to know if it would be worth to buy a bee hive ,and try havesting honey from the two pear trees in my back yard the small pears fall from the trees and bees sworm around, alot. thanks Tom
As far as a getting a beehive, I am all for it. As far as harvesting honey from the pears trees in your back yard, well, the pear trees don't produce near enough nectar to create enough honey to harvest. The good news is that the bees will fly up to 6miles away to collect nectar to turn into honey so chances are pretty good if you get a couple of hives you will be harvesting honey. Now, as far as the pears on the ground go; have a good look at the bees on those pears, chances are they are yellow jacket wasps. Bees will land on and eat rotting fruit, especially in dearth when resources are lean, but they will only eat rotting fruit if nothing else is available. I have two pear trees directly in front of my hives and the bees rarely land on and eat the dropped and rotting fruit. The yellow jacket wasps on the other hand feast on them all day every day. I hope this answers your question. Get some hive and join the hobby. Take care.
How this is a great video! My toddler and I were watching a Honey Bee Video and it really inspired me to look into bee keeping. I spent the money and am waiting on the Flow Hive 2. You are the first video I came to and I am thankful that i did! This is a great video and thanks for sharing your information,
Yea Jaymee. Welcome to the hobby. Thanks for the kind words and for stopping in to watch my videos. I really appreciate you being out there. Take care.
I'm in Birmingham alabama, trying to start bee keeping. I'm so overwhelmed. Like I don't know what's keeping a bee healthy and happy. Gonna order the flow hive. Feels like it's a good starter. Give me some advice please 🙏
My advice is to watch a number of UA-cam beekeepers to familiarize yourself with the process of keeping bees. Also, when you are ready to begin beekeeping I would recommend starting with two hives. It is always good to have one to judge against the other and move resources around between the two of them when necessary. As for the flow hive, it is an expensive hive so just be aware you can start beekeeping for much less. You can buy a complete beehive kit on Amazon right now for under 150.00 , two for under 300.00 ( a.co/d/3oTuuDO ). Two Flow Hives would cost just under 2,000.00. The bees will be happy in either but your wallet will be happier with the cheaper setup. Also, if you are good with woodworking there is another option which would allow you to get info a flow type hive for much cheaper. ua-cam.com/video/tPdLojvoeYs/v-deo.html. I hope this answers your question and gets you started down the path to beekeeping. Take care.
if you live in certain areas like here in the uk, you may have to think about wether it's worth getting a flow hive, since once bees start collecting pollen from ivy and heather it will set fast, you won't get any flow at all, so how do you extract that honey should that happen?
That is a really good question and one I haven't had to answer as it has never happened to me. Maybe we will get lucky and another commenter will see this and have an answer. Sorry I couldn't be more help. If it ever happens to me I will be sure to point it out. Thanks for stopping in and also for taking the time to leave a comment. Take care.
@@BugFarmerBees no worries, i'm looking at getting one myself here in wales nxt year, i'm still researching options and learning myself, i have yet to come across anyone who has had a serious problem and am leaning heavily toward getting a flow after weighing the pros and cons for myself and what i want to get out of it. Since ivy in particular flowers toward the end of the year, my thoughts atm are if it were to happen, perhaps simply leave it for the bees for their winter supplies, probably more of a concern for commercial than a hobbyist anyways.
Funny you should ask. A colleague of mine lives in Ireland. He tried two of these and he got rid of them. He tried to make them work for three years. Never got a drop of honey from them. Bees hated them. He even sprayed HoneyBee healthy in them. Bees climbed all over them after that but never filled them. He was one of the many victims of FlowHive. He had countless calls and emails with the factory and many of the things they told him to try were either contradictory or seemed like they were grasping for straws. Typical experience from others I’ve spoken to across the USA, including my experience of trying to make two of them work in three different apiaries around Ohio. Finally gave them to a friend of mine in Colorado so he didn’t waste his money. He can’t make them work either and he is a master beekeeper with 26 years experience. He hates them more than I do.
@@rickrapirio3798 i have 5 now two set up another 2 starting 2023 and another next year, yes they work fine for me, i got two supers full in my first season from my first flow hive just from the summer flow, i used a paint brush to coat the flow frames with wax, they took to it straight off, i don't have oil seed rape in my area, and i take off the supers just as the ivy begins to flower or just before for varroa treatment, the girls can begin filling up winter stores from the ivy. i also found a neat little trick of checking the observation windows in the supers at night with a torch makes it easy to see when they begin filling the outer frames with nectar, you can see it glistening in the cells. i'm waiting for a review on the new paradise honey smart box system from Finland which is a flow type hive, it's a poly hive different flow system and half the price of the original flow hive. might get a couple of those if they turn out good.
I am that Unicorn!! Lol. Just starting to consider bees on my little farm. I will be checking out more of your videos. Thank you for the great info!
Awesome. You are going to love beekeeping. The flow hive is a neat novelty hive. That said If you are just starting and want to get into the hobby inexpensively I would highly recommend a couple of cheap Langstroth hives. Notice I said a couple. It is wise to start with two hives so you can share resources between the two hives and you can judge the health of one hive by looking at the other. They are inexpensive to get into and you will learn beekeeping much quicker. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to reach out. I hope to see you in future comments.
Great video!!
Thank you Whitney. I appreciate it. Take care.
My question is this. Once you harvest the honey, the bees really dont know. They are still seeing capped cells. How long do those capped, but empty cells sit there until the bees realize they are empty of honey.
That is a good question. The bee know right away. After emptying the frames and returning them to their original configuration the bees immediately begin removing the caps and resealing the seams between cells.
What you think about the alibaba flow frames?
I personally have never used them but if that is what it tales to set up a couple of hives have at it. :-)
Thank you for the video. I am curious about harvesting beeswax, seems like the Flow doesn't allow that, am I right?
You are correct. The only wax on the flow frame is the wax the bees use to seal the frames and the cappings. After the harvest the bees will reseal the frames and remove the cappings. I hope that answers your question. Thank you for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to comment. Take care.
Great and informative for people considering one. I don't have one but thought the same thing you did abt not having to get into the hive. How boring wld beekeeping bee then?! Getting into them is the best part! Thanks for the bug farmer's insight. 🐝
How would I ever use the sting-o-meter if I didn't have to get into the hives. :-) Thanks for stopping in to have a look. Take care.
@@BugFarmerBees lol!! That's the truth!! Have a great weekend
I agree, I will stick to my medium supers and honey extractor.
With a flow hive you would probably draw off honey more frequently. I would never leave them on over winter . If honey sugared in those you would have to disassemble them to use them again. I have also heard of people breaking the plastic frames before.
Hi Craig. I wouldn't say you would have to draw them off more frequently but you can harvest a frame multiple times as long as the bees fill and cap it. I would never leave them on the hive over winter. I just don't think they were designed for that. Any dissembling them would be a pain. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and I hop you check out some of my other videos.
What do you do as a beekeeper when you have the wrong plants nearby that make the honey toxic. Plants such as the invasive rhododendron we have here all over the highlands of Scotland.
I wish I knew. Sorry I think this might be a question for @Frederick Dunn. Here is his link: ua-cam.com/users/FrederickDunnPhoto
If anyone knows the answer it would be Fred.
@@BugFarmerBees oh ok thanks for the reply. Will check him out and maybe put the question forth there too.
Thanks 😊
Hey bug farmer, can I become a "bee keeper" with just 1 flow hive? I probably wouldn't be able to manage more than one hive and this flow hive seems so amazing! Can you give any tips ?
You can but it's always better to have two hives. The second doesn't need to be a flow hive. It's good to have a second colony to acquire resources when necessary.
I take it with the flow hive you still have to clean the wax off the frames so the bees can refill them, if this is the case then they have to be removed to clean them, is this correct?
No sir. You do not have to clean the wax off of the frames. After harvest, the bees get to work removing cap wax and repairing the wax used to seal the flow frames. After the final harvest of the season I let the bees repair the comb before I remove the flow frames for storage until the following spring. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and thank you for taking the time to comment. Great question. Take care.
what if you open the comb and there is a bee in a comb filling it?
Good question. The bee will have room to retreat out of the comb. Also, if the frame is full and capped you won't have to worry about that :-)
I think they are very much so effected by the environment. In the Northern States, I have gotten maybe 1/3 the honey from a flow super as compared to a regular. Frames waxed, etc etc to prep and they only packed in 6 pints. When i swapped it out and put a regular super, they filled it within about 1.5 weeks.
Yea, when people scale their operations like we have it becomes ineffective to operate flow hives. They are more of a novelty or designed for the person who only wants a couple of hives.
My experience is exactly the same. We have banned their use in our club apiaries. Almost everyone at Ohio State Beekeepers meetings gives these things two thumbs down. We know of one person who has had partial success with them for two years then the bees stopped using it. He now hates FlowHive and feels he was ripped off. Fortunately he has a lot of money and can afford a mistake like that. We just want to help new people in our club avoid being ripped off and experiencing all the headaches and frustrations.
Great video! Very informative. I’ll be checking out more of your videos for sure! My journey begins 😬
Welcome to the beekeeping club. :-)
Soooo, only disadvantage is price then?
Price and winter storage. If you only plan on ever having just a couple of garden hives and price is not an issue; yes, these would be the hives for you.
If you can’t have more than two hives can you call someone local to take overflow?
I would assume you will have no problem giving excess bees away. Join your local bee club and make some contacts. Or..... Just let them fly away in a swarm. Thanks for stopping in and taking the time to drop a comment. I really appreciate it. Take care.
Have you ever had the Queen bee getting your flow hive
No but I have had a laying worker get up there and it was no fun to clean out.
How often do you have to clean the glass?
Actually, I never have cleaned it.
Unicorn here. Just bought a house with 2 acres and lots of flowers and I thought about bees. One question I had about the flow is does it saved more of the wax on the comb so the bees dont have to rebuild it or do you have to extract it? I have to be missing something here.
Hi Jason. You It is a great idea to save as much drawn comb as possible for use in the following season or new hives. After extracting the honey with an extractor let the bees clean out the frames simply by setting them out. The bees will find them and make quick work of recovering any honey the extractor doesn't get. When the bee are done cleaning the frames it is a good idea to freeze the drawn frames for 72 hours and then place them in a garbage bag for storage. If not the wax moths can get to them and ruin them. next season just before the flow add the empty but drawn frames to a super and set it on you hive. The bees will fill it quick. :-) To see an example of the bees cleaning the frames for you watch the massive harvest video and you will see us push out the wet honey frames to be cleaned and at the end you will see the bees cleaning them. Here is the link: ua-cam.com/video/XBlugjPQJMQ/v-deo.html Thanks for stopping in and for taking the time to comment. I appreciate you. Take care.
@@BugFarmerBees thanks for the reply. I was meaning basically how does the wax work with the flow super but I have been watching dunn's videos and he said the caps go but the comb wax just gets repairs led by the bees.
Flow hive is what really got me into bee keeping. I got mine back in 2015 when they did their crowdfunding.
I buy the cheap Chinese supers now when I need them. You can get 3-4 of them for what you can get a single flow super for, and their just as good.
I think it’s sad that they’ve priced themselves into the space they are in. Not sure if they figure that people are only going to buy one Maybe two of these and be done. So that’s why.. but that’s where they are.
I agree 100% Scramblerdude! I didn't even put my flow hives out this year. Are flow was interrupted by a 3 week freeze that completely decimated our flow. There is always next year :-)
Where can I find the Chinese type?
@@ricko2301 eBay has a ton of them. From what I can tell their all from the same place just different US and overseas sellers so you will find a spread in the price of about $20 or so.
Im still confused on why people think the flow hive is a larger investment. if you do not have to buy honey extracting equipment (which with traditional hive you would have to) then to me it comes out to about the same investment of money.
Hi John, I see your point but consider this; with traditional hives you can extract with the crush and strain method and not spend an extra dime. Don't get me wrong, The flow hive is a neat hive. I have two of them. That said, I get much more honey from my cheapo langstroth hives. When I was first starting out the Flow Hive seemed like a safe way for me to get into the hobby and minimize my chances of being stung. I learned pretty quickly the only way to be a beekeeper can minimize the chances of being stung is to learn how to work with bees which comes with time. Now my flow hives ore more of a novelty hive for me. I do still like them though. Thanks for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to drop a comment. I really appreciate it. I hope to see you in future comments. Take care.
@@BugFarmerBees from what I experience and the beekeepers I talked too. Most start out that way but soon move to buying an extractor. not many that I have seen stay with that way of doing it. How do you extract honey now? when not using the flow hive of course.
That is true for a few hives, but as soon as you go bigger, you only need one set of extraction equipment, but the Flow Hives add up.
The Flow Hives are perfect for small scale / home beekeeping, but for commercial use, they are too expensive.
My friend has six and after seeing them work I was sold. I purchased my first one and LOVE IT
This year I am going to run a "unique" flow hive configuration. :-)
@@BugFarmerBees sounds interesting. Can you pls be more specific? What do you mean "unique"?
I implemented the unique configuration yesterday. The video should be out in about two weeks :-) Don't you hate it when people do that :-). Thanks for stopping in. I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
@@BugFarmerBees Hey, my hive went out in the garden today and my bees arrived in 5 days--Very soon I will be a beekeeper AGAIN! I'm super stoked.
@@bradgoliphant How's it looking?
Honey is the cheapest product you can get from the hive and if you prefer getting bee wax, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, bee venom then the ordinary hives are the choice. Flow hive is not for business rather for a home toy stuff where your honey needs are fulfilled. Commercial use is nil
Well said. It is a novelty hive but also a great gateway to invite new beekeepers into the hobby. Myself, I prefer standard Langstroth boxes. That said I dutifully set up my flow hives every year :-)
I'm not sure why you couldn't collect pollen, propolis or venom with Flow Hives. You'd need an extra box to collect lots of royal jelly, but that is the same with regular hives - no difference here. And I still have to rotate old frames out of service and get some wax from it.
The main reason why the FH is not suitable for businesses is the price tag. It is just too expensive if you have to buy dozens or more. And the honey harvesting itself is probably too slow too.
Is it just one frame, or when you order, are you getting enough frames to fill the box?
Here you go. www.honeyflow.com/collections/flow-frames/products/flow-frames
I can't find video
Where you create flow hive
Here you go: ua-cam.com/video/tPdLojvoeYs/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
For a backyard beekeeper that doesn't want to end up with duplicating hives every year do you just let them swarm when you are full?
Hi Emily. Ideally, I want to keep all of my bees in their hives at least until after harvest. The more bees collecting nectar the better the harvest. That said; If, after the spring harvest, and if the hives want to swarm in the summer or fall, I will let them go. Replenish the feral bee population and get new queens for next year :-). Thanks for stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to leave a comment. Take care.
I would not recommend allowing bees to swarm. It's not responsible beekeeping because the swarm you let go may end up taking residence in someone's house and cost them a lot of money to have the bees removed. I have all the hives I want and don't want to make splits to gain more hive nor do I want to loose bees because most often a swarmed hive does not make honey that year or at least enough to support a honey super. What I do instead is throughout the early spring until summer I inspect my hives every 9 days and at the very early sign of swarming ( a egg or white jelly in a swarm cup) I remove the queen only. Once the queen is removed the hive thinks they have swarmed and they go about making the new queen they have started. After 4 days I go back to the hive and remove all the excessive queen cells to prevent virgin swarms and only leave one or two to hatch. This is called a artificial swarm. By doing this you retain your workforce of bees to make honey and your bees didn't swarm to possibly become a nuisance to someone.
I see Mercer University in the background. I received my MBA from there in 1993.
Outstanding. I received my MBA from Mercer in 2010. Go Bears!
It's will work in tropical places such as Dominican Republic?
I don't know for sure but I suspect it will work better there than it does in the States. The hive will work and function anywhere. A tropical environment means more nectar from more flowers.
I always like watching and learning from your videos my friend
Thanks. I have been collecting copper heat-syncs from inside of computers and I may actually melt them down and see if I can make something. Every time I pull a computer apart to get one I think of you. :-) You are turning me into a scrapper. Actually it's hard not to be one you realize all of the $$ just laying around everywhere. :-)
Thank you so much. This was really helpful! Do the bees still produce their own wax in the flow hives?
I'm a total newbie. :)
Hi Trinity. Yes, the bees will produce their own wax. If you have access to beeswax I would recommend brushing some wax on the flow frames to encourage the bees to take to it. Great to hear from you and welcome to the beekeeping community.
In my opinion, having the honeycomb's already made should allow the Bee's to focus their attention and energy to making honey, and taking care of the Queen.
But then again, what do I know?
You know a lot. That is exactly how it works. That is why we beekeepers see drawn comb as gold. It saves the bees a lot of time and honey. Great comment!
until the bear bites into it. :)
In my experience I find (I haven’t tried all Apimaye products but I see no better queen system (Queen defender)…the multipurpose feeders…and the bottom/pollen boards…on the market) Apimaye to 🐝 the best enterence entry &/or expert level keepers…I do wanna try flow but it will bee a custom built if/when I do.
I have just the solution for you :-). ua-cam.com/video/tPdLojvoeYs/v-deo.html
The Chinese frames and the flow hive frames work the same iv tried the both and the bees take very well to them after added bees wax with a paint roller. If your a good wood worker you can buy the frames for $120 and build the box yourself in mass i ran 16 "flow hives" last year and this year ill be running 32 this year they are fantastic
That is awesome. Would you be willing to share a picture or video of your operation. I would love to show that many flow hives in use on my channel. It would be neat to see. My email address is on the "About" tab of the Bug Farmer channel page.
@@BugFarmerBees maybe next year. I'm not ready to give people all my ideas... If I did that all the products I use/make everything would go up in price...
I know this video is a year old, I was curious about your thoughts on the flow hive frames... People have said they are too heavy when full, especially splitting the hive, as well as the mechanics of the boards, do break and you are stuck buying in sets of 3 or 5 frames as a package deal (and that is a expensive cost) instead of individual frames, just wondering if this has happened to you ?
The frames are heavy when full but I guess that is a good thing because you drain them into jars directly from the hive. As far as the frames reliability, I have to say I have been operating the same two flow hives for four years and haven't had the first mechanical issue with them. The frames are just as solid now as when I first started using them. I hope this helps. Thanks for stopping in to have a look, I hope I see you in future comments. Take care.
@@BugFarmerBees thanks for getting back to me, I have become a recent subscriber and really enjoy watching your videos.
🦄 Very informative. I have an allergy to bee stings so I will live my beekeeping through you and Vino. 🐝
I'll try to get stung less so I don't kick off a UA-cam sting reaction :-) Thanks for stopping in to have a look. I really appreciate it. Take care.
Very good video sir..
Thank you. I appreciate you stopping in to have a look and for taking the time to comment. Take care.
your enthusiasm is inspiring
Thanks Thiago. I appreciate you stopping in to have a look. Take care.
Great video, I enjoyed every second of it.
Thanks Allen. Thanks for stopping in and also for taking the time to comment. I hope I see you in future comments. Take care.
What about cleaning up cappings? I suppose I could google it. Thanks for the video. I'm thinking of making a long langstroth
In the flow hive there are no cappings. When you split the comb to drain the honey the caps are generally left in place. The bees will remove the cappings and repair the cells after harvest. Then they will refill the flow frames if the flow is still in progress. Great question. Thanks for stopping in to have a look.
My is in mail hope get it next week and then last showdown with my bees! Replace old one with flow frames
Enjoy. You will love beekeeping. It is great fun.