Flow Hive

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Flow Hive
Product typeBeehive with unique honey frame
CountryAustralia
Introduced2015; 9 years ago (2015) Edit this at Wikidata
Company
Company typePrivately held company
IndustryBeekeeping
Founded2015; 9 years ago (2015) Edit this at Wikidata in Byron Bay, Australia
Headquarters
Byron Bay
,
Australia
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Cedar Anderson
  • Stuart Anderson
ProductsFlow Hive
Brands
  • Flow Hive
  • Flow
  • Flow Frames
ParentBeeInventive Pty Ltd
Websitewww.honeyflow.com.au Edit this at Wikidata

Flow Hive is a beehive brand with a unique honey frame designed to allow honey extraction without needing to open the beehive. During extraction, visibly bees are disturbed less than during other methods.

Design[edit]

Schematic with inset at top-right showing the way cells in the honey frame offset during honey extraction to allow honey to flow down for collection

The honey frames contain a partially-formed honeycomb with vertical gaps that is made of a plastic free of both BPA and BPS.[1] These honey frames are for use in the Langstroth hive compartment, commonly called honey super, which is intended for the accumulation of honey by bees. Bees fill these vertical gaps with wax to complete cells and then fill them with honey before covering them with wax. When the mechanism of a frame is activated by inserting and turning a crank mechanically, the vertical gaps are offset by one-half of a cell. This breaks the wax covering and allows the honey to flow through the cells into a channel at the base of each frame and out into a collection vessel,[2] obviating the need for extraction equipment such as centrifuges and filters.[3][4] After resetting the frame, the bees remove the broken covering and repair and refill the cells.[2]

Flow Hive honey frames comprise more plastic and plastic surfaces than the plastic foundations used commonly in conventional modern beekeeping. However, the brood chamber in the Flow Hive below the honey super may contain hive frames intended for bees to make brood comb entirely from their wax.

Patents for the Flow Hive cover all designs with split cells to drain honey.[5] A company called TapComb that infringed on these patents ceased trading in late 2018.[6]

Crowdfunding[edit]

The Flow Hive design was invented in Australia by Cedar Anderson and his father Stuart Anderson. In February 2015, they launched a campaign on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo hoping to raise A$70,000 for a custom injection mould. Instead, they raised over $12 million and received nearly 25,000 orders from over 130 countries.[7] The campaign broke several records for Indiegogo, becoming its most successful campaign as of that time.[8]

The Flow Hive 2, which includes a number of small improvements, was launched using another crowdfunding campaign in early 2018.[9][10]

Criticism[edit]

There were speculative criticisms of the design made by beekeeping journalists and bloggers during the first Indiegogo campaign.[11]

  • Use of plastic comb: The Flow Hive uses plastic combs for collecting honey. However, plastic foundations are commonly used in conventional beekeeping today.[12] The Flow Hive uses a food-certified plastic in the honey super only which allows the bees to produce their own natural wax comb in the brood nest.[citation needed]
  • Crystallization: Especially in colder climates, honey can thicken or crystallize, preventing honey from flowing.[11] If this prevents operation of the Flow Hive mechanism, it can be addressed by either waiting for the bees to remove the crystallized honey, or by soaking the frame in water to dissolve it away.[13]
  • Promotion as 'honey on tap': In the first advertisements for the Flow Hive, it was marketed as a way to remove honey "without disturbing the bees". Many experienced beekeepers took issue with this, as they said it promoted a lack of maintenance of hives. Bee hives require regular maintenance and observation to check for diseases and other problems that might arise.[14] Cedar Anderson responded to the criticism, changing the way that the Flow Hive was marketed, and specifying that all that changes with the Flow Hive system is the process of harvesting of honey, and that the rest of the beekeeping process should remain the same.[15][16][17]

Reception[edit]

In Australia, a rapid increase in new members joining existing beekeeping clubs in 2017, the capping of new memberships by some clubs, and the establishment of at least one new club were attributed to the Flow Hive.[18]

  • Flow Hive with brood box and characteristic sloped roof
    Flow Hive with brood box and characteristic sloped roof
  • Beekeeper next to a Flow Hive
    Beekeeper next to a Flow Hive

Effects[edit]

A study comparing Langstroth hives to the Flow Hive has found no significant differences in the microbial populations of bees' bodies in these hives.[19]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ John, Melissa. "Flow Hives Reviews: A Detailed Look at Flow Hive". The Elliott Homestead. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  2. ^ a b "How Flow Works". Flow Hive. BeeInventive. 2022. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
  3. ^ Romeo, Claudia (19 November 2016). "Two Australian guys fixed the most annoying thing about beekeeping". Business Insider Australia (published 21 November 2016). Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  4. ^ Hamadiya, Adam (12 May 2023). "Flow Hive: The Greatest Beekeeping Invention in History". Inspiring Click. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  5. ^ Hendy, Nina (14 April 2017). "Flow Hive inventor stung by Chinese 'copycat'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
  6. ^ Hendy, Nina (6 November 2018). "Flow Hive pest free after parasite brand folds". The Sydney Morning Herald (published 7 November 2018). Retrieved 23 October 2022.
  7. ^ Hassall, Craig (12 September 2016). "Flow Hive: Cedar and Stuart Anderson talk about life one year after crowdfunding success". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  8. ^ Sawers, Paul (9 March 2015). "Indiegogo's new crowdfunding record: $5.3M and counting for a smart beekeeping system". Venture Beat. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  9. ^ Haridy, Rich (28 March 2018). "New Flow Hive 2 makes getting honey on tap even easier". newatlas.com. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  10. ^ "Flow Hive 2". Indiegogo. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  11. ^ a b Henein, Maryam (19 August 2017). "3 Reasons To Go Against The Flow Hive". Honey Colony. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
  12. ^ Kountry, Alex (24 September 2023). "Are Flow Hives Bad For Bees? (Here is All You Need To Know)". HayFarmGuy. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  13. ^ "Does honey crystallise in the Flow frame?". Flow Hive. 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  14. ^ Parker, Peter (18 July 2023). "Flow Hive Problems: Good or Bad for Bee?". Strong Beekeeper. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  15. ^ Gillespie, Alison (5 January 2016). "He Said, She Said, They Said: What's the Final Verdict on the Wildly Popular Flow Hive?". Modern Farmer. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  16. ^ Conrad, Ross (20 April 2015). "Flow Hive". Bee Culture: The American Magazine of Beekeeping. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  17. ^ "Flow beehive: An alternative honey harvesting method". beekeepingcraft.com. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  18. ^ Forbes, Tom (26 December 2017). "Beekeeping booms but clubs fear hive health may suffer". Australian Broadcasting Corporation (published 28 December 2017).
  19. ^ Subotic, Sladjana; Boddicker, Andrew M.; Nguyen, Vy M.; Rivers, James; Briles, Christy E.; Mosier, Annika C. (8 November 2019). Loor, Juan J. (ed.). "Honey bee microbiome associated with different hive and sample types over a honey production season". PLoS ONE. 14 (11). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0223834. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 6839897. S2CID 207945136. Environmental stressors have been shown to alter the indigenous gut microbiota in A. mellifera. [... ] We examined if different hive technologies, and specifically the way honey is harvested from those technologies, influenced the microbiome of the bees. This study did not find a difference in the A. mellifera-associated microbial communities based on hive or sample type, but a small difference was observed between June and September indicating a temporal influence on community structure that may be related to changing forage during the sample period.

External links[edit]

Media related to Flow Hive at Wikimedia Commons

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