Flow Hives

[chriswb]

Help please !
I am looking into purchasing a flow hive as part of our NT project. I have been trying to find out more about them, has anyone any experience in working with them. We currently have 5 NS Bee hives. ( if they all survive winter) Our project focus is to educate visitors to the importance of Bees, their habitat and ecology. By introducing a flow hive we would be exploring and presenting an alternative way of Bee keeping. Suggestions and input welcome

 

[Ian123]

Flow hives are a gimmick pure and simple, there are other alternative types that require far less outlay and are more practical. Do you mean national when you say NS hives?

 

[Norton Caff]

I don't have a flow hive but several anecdotes that I have been told involve honey crystallising in the cells and the "flow" not happening. They are designed for a warmer clime and different honey. As the honey cappings can't be inspected it is impossible to tell if the honey is ready for harvesting. A lot of money for a lot of grief!

 

[enrico]

It would be so much better to get a good display hive that allowed people to see what was going on!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Flow hives, lot of plastic, lot of fiddle, lot of expense

 

[chriswb]

Flow hives are a gimmick pure and simple, there are other alternative types that require far less outlay and are more practical. Do you mean national when you say NS hives?

Yes

 

[chriswb]

It would be so much better to get a good display hive that allowed people to see what was going on!

Thank you, yes We have display hives and demo hives, just looking to expand the project to add more interest.

 

[Into the lions den]

Flow hives and OSR. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

However my negativity and lack of willingness to look after a few for a local farmshop what wanted them cost me my siting on their land. They gave it to someone else who WAS happy to run their flow hives. At last meeting they told me they had spent 4 grand and over 4 years took almost zero from them and they got all gunked up with crystallised honey.

Just what I told them would happen.

 

[chriswb]

I don't have a flow hive but several anecdotes that I have been told involve honey crystallising in the cells and the "flow" not happening. They are designed for a warmer clime and different honey. As the honey cappings can't be inspected it is impossible to tell if the honey is ready for harvesting. A lot of money for a lot of grief!

this is just the type of info I am looking for thank you.

 

[chriswb]

Flow hives and OSR. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

However my negativity and lack of willingness to look after a few for a local farmshop what wanted them cost me my siting on their land. They gave it to someone else who WAS happy to run their flow hives. At last meeting they told me they had spent 4 grand and over 4 years took almost zero from them and they got all gunked up with crystallised honey.

Just what I told them would happen.

Interesting . Thank you food for thought.

 

[Boston Bees]

Help please !
I am looking into purchasing a flow hive as part of our NT project. I have been trying to find out more about them, has anyone any experience in working with them. We currently have 5 NS Bee hives. ( if they all survive winter) Our project focus is to educate visitors to the importance of Bees, their habitat and ecology. By introducing a flow hive we would be exploring and presenting an alternative way of Bee keeping. Suggestions and input welcome

Something like a top bar hive could be a much cheaper way of showing an alternative form of beekeeping?

 

[chriswb]

Something like a top bar hive could be a much cheaper way of showing an alternative form of beekeeping?

That a good idea, i will look into that, do you have experience of these ?

 

[Boston Bees]

That a good idea, i will look into that, do you have experience of these ?

Absolutely none! But others on here certainly do. I know they aren't straightforward, but then neither are Flow Hives

 

[Mint Bee]

A number of NT properties have bees on site and link to these as part of the property. where are you based Chris?

 

[Wilco]

It's not the climate that is the issue so much as what forage is around. Any OSR in the area and you'll basically end up with a crystallised mess. Likewise ivy in the Autumn. If you're going to do it, only put the flow super on after OSR and remove some time in August. Rather defeats the purpose.

 

[drex]

Help please .
By introducing a flow hive we would be exploring and presenting an alternative way of Bee keeping. Suggestions and input welcome

The selling point of a flow hive is simply about getting the honey out of the hives. Exyracting the honey is only a very small part of beekeeping.
I agree that managing a top bar hive would teach you far more and be very much cheaper

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The selling point of a flow hive is simply about getting the honey out of the hives

Or getting the money out of the 'beekeeper'

 

[ericbeaumont]

trying to find out more about them

You've had the blunt truth, Chris, but if you're determined to persevere I can put you in touch with a beekeeper who runs nothing but FlowHives and gets them to produce honey (no OSR, though).

looking to expand the project to add more interest.

Opening a tap and filling a jar may give a quick thrill but it advertises the idea that beekeeping - and food production - is easy, which is not really where we ought to be heading. What I mean is that I believe it's more useful to teach that the journey of an activity is more valuable than the end result.

Bear in mind that if a flow stops and bees are in a robbing mood they'll barge their way onto the tap and won't let go.

Unless you're going to get your customers into beekeeping kit first, it's a risk that you may not want to take. Of course, beekeepers know that robber bees are harmless, but the public will be alarmed. Oh, and forget about opening the tap in wasp season.

What about Enrico's idea of an observation hive? This one is in the Netherlands.

 

[pargyle]

https://forum.honeyflow.com/latest
Hardly the most active forum on the planet - flow hive practitioners who find success tend to be in much warmer climates that the UK and have flows of nectar that don't crystallise when you turn your back on them. There are more negative views about using them in the UK than positive ones I'm afraid.

Lots of past discussion on here - some good some not so good:

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/flow-hive-success-stories.43875/
https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/a-welsh-flow-hive-harvest.38041/
https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/new-beekeeper-flow-hive.46921/

 

[JamezF]

We discussed the growing of OSR in another thread recently, but this evening I've been out playing skittles and chatting with a few local farmers who told me that the price of OSR has gone up £70 (about 30%, I think) in the last week. If that holds I suspect we're suddenly going to see a lot more OSR being grown.

I appreciate there are benefits to beekeepers when there's a lot of OSR, but actually last year when we had none locally extraction was so much easier.

James