Flow Hive - more info

[waverider]

Flow Hive -FAQ ;

http://www.honeyflow.com/faqs/p/22

 

[SillyWilly]

Their funding page went live about 30 minutes ago and they've already made $145,886 - their target for the campaign was $70,000.

So it looks like not everyone's as skeptical as commenters on this thread

 

[stormpsy]

350k and its not been live an hour. So tempted too

 

[stormpsy]

Didnt relise delivery will be sept 2015. Just bout to 400k

 

[Hivemaker.]

Just bout to 400k

Up to a million now.

 

[Erichalfbee]

A million and a half in a day
Well, I'll be blowed.....I had this off as a non starter.
Some of the comments are interesting too, it seems to have grabbed lots of imaginations with people planning hives in their back gardens.

 

[domino]

For $300 you can get a full flow box. Yes $300.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Their funding page went live about 30 minutes ago and they've already made $145,886 - their target for the campaign was $70,000.

So it looks like not everyone's as skeptical as commenters on this thread

Or to put it another way - the people on this thread are realists and beekeepers with a wide range of experience who know and understand the pitfalls/technicalities. What you have on the funding page are the naiive great unwashed who now see the 'opportunity' to have bees in their back gardens without any of the work we know is involved I think in a while we find out that this is one big scam.
As P T Barnum said -
'There's one born every minute'

 

[madasafish]

For $300 you can get a full flow box. Yes $300.

Yes I saw that.

You can fool some of the people all of the time - and - more money than sense..
are my main comments..


That's more than ALL my hives cost me to buy /make.

 

[pargyle]

YEHH ... I'm with JBM ... apparently the majority of pledges have come from the USA - it would be interesting to know what sort of people over there want a flowhive and whether these are new beekeepers or existing beekeepers - I suspect the former.

The pledge site does rather paint a very rosy picture of beekeeping generally and it almost glows in terms of what the flow hive will accomplish. Lots of beekeeping essentials just glossed over.

Credit to them for creating a massive pot of cash but whether they will be able to deliver in this volume is something else altogether - lots of caveats on the site about how long it may take to get product out. If product ever hits the market I suspect the forums will be full of people asking some very basic beekeeping questions ... like 'how do I put bees in my flow hive'. Cynical ? Moi ? Never ....


And it's now over $1.5m .....

 

[For want of a better word]

Or to put it another way - the people on this thread are realists and beekeepers with a wide range of experience who know and understand the pitfalls/technicalities. What you have on the funding page are the naiive great unwashed who now see the 'opportunity' to have bees in their back gardens without any of the work we know is involved I think in a while we find out that this is one big scam.
As P T Barnum said -
'There's one born every minute'

Only fools and horses work!

Could this be as big a scam as the " Bomb detector" ???????????

Yeghes da

 

[domino]

Yes I saw that.

You can fool some of the people all of the time - and - more money than sense..
are my main comments..


That's more than ALL my hives cost me to buy /make.

The price just puts me off. The traditional boxes and frame method is simpler and cheaper. The frames also look pretty big so I assume they'll be heavy when you try and move them. The biggest issue I have with them is they are going to be a juicy target for thieves.

 

[Firefly]

They just announced an improved 5-frame version: Flow C5™

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I suspect the forums will be full of people asking some very basic beekeeping questions ... like 'how do I put bees in my flow hive'. Cynical ? Moi ? Never ....

Or more likely boo hoo - where's all my money gone? two years down the line and still no hive.
Is it just me or does any one else think that you would have to be particularly stupid to even think 'it's a little expensive' or 'how would I clean it' rather than 'is it the first of April already?'
But then I suppose there are plenty of people out there stuck in their little idealistic cocoons totally divorced from the real world who see the obviously staged pictures of nice runny honey flowing out of those pristine pipes straight into the honey jars and think 'right. that's it I'm going to be the new urban eco-warrior' catch the ever so green local bus to their nearest trendy boutique for a pair of humanely produced leather sandals and a jaunty beekeeper's flat cap then phone up 'Pets at Home' to order a colony of bees (pygmy ones preferably as they are much trendier)

................only in America!

 

[maddydog]

Not convinced it'll work - or at least not for very long but would love to see one in action for a season. I don't live near London or certain areas of the SW so no chance!

 

[mbc]

A triumph for marketing over substance, well done them!
At first I thought it was a hoax, but on delving a little deeper found it is actually based on a very clever, real invention.
I doubt very much whether these devices will ever recover their carbon footprint(or monetary cost) in harvested honey, especially in the UK with its uncertain honey flows, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
From what I've read I reckon they might work ok for the first time they're filled, after that I can only foresee a gummed up mess, but I really don't see the point of people beeing so negative about new innovations in beekeeping, even if they're aimed at those with more money than sense.

 

[BILL.HEARD]

Sorry but i think the whole idea is a scam, but I can see it appealing to certain sections of the public. How does it deal with two or three supers of **** honey granulating in a matter of days, or six or seven supers on the hives during the summer months remembering you need supers for room before honey. i think the gullibility of people is amazing.

 

[Ely]

What a load of of new bollocks

 

[waverider]

Is there a luddite movement on the forum?

 

[alanf]

I first thought it was someone having a laugh. But the patents and marketing take it beyond that. Now we know what the basic idea is I could see it working given ideal circumstances and well timed management. You would have to persuade the bees to deposit honey where you want it, avoid anything that might start crystallising like OSR and then cap it uniformly. That's quite a lot of detail management before you try your first extraction.

It could work first time, it might even work a second time. But pretty soon the wax, crystallised honey and propolis will accumulate. Leave it too long and it won't move. Use too much force and the mouldings break. Then you have to carefully clean out before being able to use it again. So every hive practically needs twice as much patent comb as you might think and you spend as long cleaning it out (with honey lost to cleaning) as you would uncapping and spinning.

Good luck to anyone wanting to try it, I'm as keen on gadgets as the next but this will wait until it's actually demonstrated to work though a season without endless tinkering and cleaning.