Flow Hive Bee hive invention to let honey run out

ClissAT

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Thanks for the heads up Steve for this show. I will definitely watch it.
I saw their project on the crowd funding site when I was investigating crowd funding.
It looked really interesting.
When I saw it they had about $12k not $12million!
It is really a double edged sword because it's a really good idea but most people will not care for the hive as they should so when it stops producing, there will be diseased & parasite filled hives for sale or give away all over the place in a few months or years.
Then you have to wonder whether those secondhand hives would be worth getting because it might be too expensive to repopulate them or get rid of the parasites.
A bit like saving battery hens!

A man who lived up the street a few houses had native hives & there were always bees around my place. But after he left over a year ago & took his hives with him, there have been hardly any little black bees here.
It was only in August this year that honey bees came back here after a 3yr absence due to heavy wet seasons, gum trees not flowering & probably disease.
I have seen the very occasional blue banded bee. But earlier this year there were some really nasty bees around my garden & they chased me! They seemed darker than I thought honey bees should be & they seemed really aggressive.
 
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ClissAT

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I recorded the Australian Story off the TV last night & watched it this morning.
Very insightful. I feel for the guy who invented the process.
I do hope he makes a success of it without it destroying his & his extended family's lives.
He will always have naysayers.
I might even be interested in getting a hive myself once the bugs are ironed out. No pun intended!
 

Tim C

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Yeah, I think there's a lot of jealousy there from the traditionalists, and the dis-information and wives tales abound. A bit of tall poppy syndrome methinks.
I have worked for several beekeepers extracting honey. Bloody hot, hard work.!!
My hat goes off to the lateral and simplistic thinking of the inventor.
Several of my mates down here have bees, but they all knock the flow-hive. Hive beetle and European foul brood have been around for a fair while, and now there is a more disastrous American foul brood. Some have lost all their bees, their whole income, through disease and quarantine, all because of a few unscrupulous or lazy operators.
The most plausible criticism I have heard is thick honey not flowing, but extracting seems to be done at the end of spring/start of summer, so this should be a non-issue.
I would urge anyone "going with the flow" to join an apiary club, know their diseases and do regular inspections, or the traditionalists might end up as savage as their bees.
That said, the costs and labour involved in traditional extraction are the biggest deterrents.
 

Mark

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There's some debate about the latest offer. The Hoop Pine Flow Hive.
Geez they're certainly doing the hard sell on the hoop pine version thingy they've overdone the buy buttons on their website landing page that's for sure :p I suppose they have to milk it whilst it's hot... forgive the mixed pun.

I would urge anyone "going with the flow" to join an apiary club, know their diseases and do regular inspections, or the traditionalists might end up as savage as their bees.
Yep, I have no experience with honey bees at all and as tempting as it looks with the honey oozing out at the turn of a key only a fool would think keeping bees is that easy.

I still their biggest issue will be delivering on the orders as promised that's going to be a mammoth task.
 

ClissAT

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I found some anomalies in the wording of that website.
Some of it is written in Chinese English while in another section it compares the Red Cedar unfavourably to the Hoop Pine. Then it does an about face & unfavourably compares the Hoop to the Red Cedar.
Yet it is pushing the Hoop pine version. You would think they would beat up the Hoop pine version if that is the one they want to sell.
Then they only talk about post & packaging once that I found yet they continued to say the Hoop pine version was so much cheaper than the Cedar if purchased in November but if there actually is postage to be paid it will make them very closely priced.
All very suspicious!
In anycase it is way out of my price range so it doesn't really matter.
 

Tim C

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Yeah a real culture shock for the young bloke, never having had to worry what day of the week it was beforehand. I hope he fills the orders before the stomach ulcers set in.........
A bit off-topic, but I recently checked out Zen energy SA. I heard they were making stand-alone power systems and using Tesla batteries, so I emailed them to see if I could get a couple.
The smallest "investment"available is a complete 7KWH system.... for $24000. I emailed them back saying a 2KW would be plenty for me, and if they were only interested in sales to rich people, well it defeated the whole purpose of snobbing the grid, and was of absolutely no help to the desperate people being shafted by the power co's.

Just another corporate out to make a quick buck in my opinion.
 

Tim C

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A retro-fit for standard bee boxes would be cost-effective for established apiarists, if it was possible.
 

Director

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OK so my mate around the corner bought one of these recently so I got in his ear about it. It's still pretty new, only a few months old and he hasn't had his first crop yet. There is an inspection hole where he can check on things without disturbing the bees. But he knows it's not a set-n-forget proposition either, he joined the local beekeepers club in order to learn stuff and know how to spot any disease problems with the bees. So far so good. I'll keep you all posted as things progress.
 
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Helen Auriga

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Our flow hive arrived just before Christmas. It's on my winter jobs list to put it together so the bees can be transferred in spring. Our current hive is looking like it needs some maintenance so the brees will go in the flow hive and a new brooder box until the old hive gets an overhaul.
 

Director

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OK just a quick update, was chatting to my mate this morning and he has had to drain 2 'sections' already as they were filling up and the bees were slowing down production. I got to sample a spoonful of the BEST honey I have ever tasted. It was clear and flowed beautifully. He's got a local bee expert dropping in to check on things in a few weeks so he was going to call me so I could drop around and get some shots at the same time. Will update you all at the time.
 

Director

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OK, here's some pics from yesterday, he cracked two frames open and got about 4 decent sized jars out and I was lucky enough to score one of them! Best honey ever. So here's some pics, I also took some video if I can figure out how to upload it.

Here's the outside shot, note added roof liner to keep direct sun off.

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With the end inspection hatch open and frames full of honey, the end left frame is not quite full.

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The side inspection hatch open.

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Cracking the frames open.

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And the good stuff flows out. :)

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Watching it drop out of the frames.

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Might be some more shots around Easter time, he's getting one of the local beesperts out to check on the queen and activity in the lower section.
 
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