Flow Hive Bee hive invention to let honey run out

Mark

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The ABC found a great story about a Bee hive with tap to collect honey invention called the Flow Hive designed by father and son from northern NSW Australia.

Essentially, the bees do not need to be disturbed because of a clever internal plastic structure which breaks the honey cell without having to disassemble the hive and allows the honey to ooze out into a jar! How magic is THIS!

These guys are running a funding campaign to raise enough money for bulk manufacturing and it seems they were swamped with investors - why wouldn't they... This invention could revolutionise beekeeping around the world!

Apparently, they intend to start manufacturing the flow hives in Brisbane and then possibly around the world.

How amazing is this Aussie ingenuity - I mean I don't know them from a bar of soap but guys like this father and son team make me proud to be Australian.

What a wonderful story and I wish them all the best.


http://www.honeyflow.com/
https://www.facebook.com/flowhive?_rdr
https://twitter.com/flowhive
 

stevo

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yeah I've been watching it for a little while, it's everywhere on the media. I was about to make a thread and came to this section and saw yours!

They were at 2.8million dollars the other day, and now they're at 3.3million dollars.

It looks great. I thought about getting a $600 option aswell....

but! .. I thought about it for a little bit and there's a fair bit of "hype" about it, and think there's going to be things that happen along the way, there's going to be different groups of people that will do different things.

The hive arrives in a flat pack, you have to paint it and assemble it. I read somewhere that delivery could be at the end of the year? (could be a rumour)

1. One group will never unpack their hive
2. One group will unpack it and not know what to do with it
3. One group will assemble it, but never get bees for it
4. One group will go all the way and get bees, but after a year of not learning anything or maintaining it they might give it away
5. One group will take an interest and have success

So, I thought I'd wait, and get a whole hive cheaper from someone that lost interest?

All the stories give the impression it's all magically easy? I think you'd still have to learn and know a bit about bees and have the gear like the suit and head net and smoker? because you'd still have to deal with the bees occasionally?

The hives don't come with bees so you have to source them or organize someone to get bees in to your hive and I think that could be a problem for the average backyarder that doesn't know anything about them. I don't know if there's any contacts or people in place to organize the supply of bees to all these new individual new hives? Maybe that's a potential business opportunity for someone?

I'm not trying to be negative here, I think there's just some little issues that people may not have thought of.
 

Mark

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I agree will everything you said and it's why I'm holding off also. Plus, I'm one of those people who doesn't know much about keeping bees so although I'd love to impulse buy I felt it would be silly of me to jump into something like European beekeeping without fully researching it first and ensuring I was ready!

I read somewhere that delivery could be at the end of the year? (could be a rumour)
Yes correct, most orders are expected Nov/Dec (hopefully) and they have openly disclosed the possibilities of delays due to volume of orders and manufacturing glitches. I mentioned a little about delays in my blog post...
http://www.selfsufficientme.com/blo..._honey_simply_runs_out_at_the_turn_of_a_tap__

The hives don't come with bees so you have to source them or organize someone to get bees in to your hive and I think that could be a problem for the average backyarder that doesn't know anything about them. I don't know if there's any contacts or people in place to organize the supply of bees to all these new individual new hives? Maybe that's a potential business opportunity for someone?
Exactly! If the manufacturing of thousands of hives will be challenging you'd think finding thousands of extra bee colonies will be TWICE as hard... where are they all going to come from... Bazza the bee breeder... :D

I'm not trying to be negative here, I think there's just some little issues that people may not have thought of.
It will need incremental growth because it just simply can't expand fast. Most people probably realise this point but there will be those who become frustrated and the inventors of Flow Hive will soon experience the other side of business (if they haven't already).
 

stevo

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I don't know much about honey bees either, and suspect that you could spend another few hundred dollars on extra things you need to maintain a hive. I reckon when the sudden demand is there, Bazza the bee breeder could sell someone a queen bee and extra bees for $100 - $300? ( I have no idea)

I'm sure there'll be people complaining when their hive arrives in a flatpack... "Where's the bees?"

It will be interesting to watch over the next year. I wonder if there's a new rush on joining the local bee club at this very moment? Bazzas home phone will be ringing off the hook :popcork:

PS. another thing might be council regulations for some people, they should check that
 

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Poor Bazza or lucky Bazza :dunno:

Yeah true, what's the bet their number one question will be "where's the bees"? :ROFL:

PS. another thing might be council regulations for some people, they should check that
Ohhh, good point...
 

stevo

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I just had a quick google....

All honey bee hives in Qld have to be registered, I assume that would be Australia wide. (i'm sure people wouldn't worry about that, i'm just pointing it out)

There's a whole bunch of guidelines... .

You shouldn't have a hive on a 400sqm block
You shouldn't put the hive near the neighbours fence etc
a whole bunch of stuff which I think most people wouldn't think of

annual hive registration fee of $14.80

https://www.daff.qld.gov.au/animal-industries/bees/beekeeping-essentials/hive-registration
 

Mark

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Wow, an annual hive rego fee! Tell'em they're dreaming :p

I can understand the other rules (except for registering) ... I mean, you dont have to register a chicken with the council, only just abide by the rules so what makes bees so special? Maybe because they could be a danger I guess. ..?
 

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I think... because bees are a billion dollar industry, can spread pests and disease to other hives, and can travel 5km, they try to keep track of who's doing what. If Steves Bees got a disease I should probably let them know and then they can look up who's in the area and check their hives.

So, I wonder if a load of people get bees and don't know what they're doing , it could be a bigger risk for the industry?

Here's some more info: http://qbabees.org.au/pests-and-diseases/

here's some classifieds: http://qbabees.org.au/classifieds/
 

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Okay that makes sense I suppose about diseases etc (bit like why banana trees are required to be registered - but it doesn't cost money to reg).

What the industry should be worried about is beekeeping becoming so easy that every second house has a hive in the backyard pumping honey out virtually straight into the kitchen!
 

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and that starts me thinking... it could be interesting if a few houses in the neighbourhood had hives then maybe there could some trading on a very local level between neighbours etc.

I trade with my neighbour at the moment, I take beers over Saturday arvo and they bring beers over here Sunday :ROFL: ... that was a bit off topic
 

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That's a pretty even swap - I'm not sure if that's trading :D

My uncle lives in suburbia and he supplies the street with honey with his bunch of honey bee hives. I haven't asked him what he thinks of the flow hive yet but knowing him he'll have to get one...
 

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There is some pushback and criticism from seasoned beekeepers around the world and in Australia about the negatives of the flow hive. Claims like: not enough space for the bees, bees don't like building on plastic, cost, etc; however, in fairness the reviews are guesses and not based on actual experience handling the flow hive. For a review to be credible, the person should be using the product otherwise it's just opinion based on hearsay.

Here is a follow up video showing how the flow frame functions.

 
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