Review of The Flow Hive

The Flow Hive

By John Gates

John Gates, retired Apiculture Specialist with the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Canada. From 2002 to 2015 John owned and operated a bee breeding and honey bee stock production business. He conducts courses in queen rearing (most recently in Tobago), lectures to beekeeping groups, and is a private consultant. He has no financial ties with the makers of The Flow Hive nor does he sell their equipment.

I have used Flow frames for the past three seasons in a few of my hives. I was contacted by the inventors with a request to test the system in Canada and to give them my honest feedback. During my 26 years with the Apiculture Program in British Columbia I tested many inventions. Some were worthwhile, a lot were not. At first I was reluctant to test this one because I thought the concept of sticking a tube into a hive and turning a valve to get honey was ridiculous. I wasn’t thinking “out of the box”, however after viewing their video I thought it was worth exploring.

I was pleased with the results in each of the seasons using the Flow system. My Flow frame-equipped hives produced just as much honey as the regular hives. The equipment worked as advertised and the honey quality was excellent. I loved being able to judge the progress of the nectar flow by seeing the frame end cells filling with honey. Although I have kept bees for over 40 years I found myself wandering up to my home hive several times a day to spend some quiet time with the bees. It has brought me full circle, back to the days when I started beekeeping and was eager to learn everything I could about these fascinating creatures.

Flow Hives provide an innovative and convenient method of removing honey from beehives without disturbing bees. When removing honey with this system there is no need to open hives, remove bees from frames, lift and transport heavy boxes, extract honey using expensive equipment or process honey before consumption or sale. Everything is done at the hives.

When you purchase a Flow Hive you receive a ventilated bottom board with mite detection tray, one brood box with frames, a queen excluder, one honey super with flow frames, an inner cover and gable lid. Boxes are standard Langstroth frame hive dimensions that accommodate either 8 or 10 standard, deep frames. Beekeepers should order the size boxes that will be compatible with their other equipment or, for new beekeepers, be the size most commonly used in their area.

While Flow equipment is unique in many aspects, the major innovation that sets this system apart from any other is the patented frames that deliver clean honey straight from a hive to exterior containers of the beekeeper’s choice. By simply inserting a spigot into the end of each frame and turning a key, the frame cells split, the honey flows down behind the cappings into a sealed trough then outside the hive. Honey boxes are orientated so that all this takes place at the rear of a hive away from bee flight. Sounds unbelievable but it works. Honey from Flow frames is delicious. It has all the subtleties of comb honey including a slight waxy taste.

There is no need to buy whole Flow Hives. The web site HoneyFlow.com has instructions to modify regular boxes to fit Flow frames. Eight frame Langstroth boxes accommodate six Flow frames; ten frame boxes accommodate seven Flow frames. Hatches cut in the boxes provide openings for spigots and keys and to observe bee behaviour. The design of the frames and hatches prevents bees from escaping during honey removal and observation. Customers can purchase any number of frames. Flow frames and regular frames can be mixed in the same box. That is a good way to try a few Flow frames, however the mixing will cause bees to be disturbed and escape during honey removal.

Because Flow frame ends are clear plastic, you have an end-on view of bees working inside cells, cleaning, depositing and removing honey and constructing cappings. This view is not possible with standard observation hives. Each honey super also has a side window. When frame-end cells are full of honey and the side frame is mostly capped, the honey is ripe for removal.

The area where I keep bees is not great honey country. Yields are small, forage is relatively scarce. Building development is slowly crowding out farming. This is however, one of the best areas in Canada to breed and raise bees because of its long season with dry warm springs and hot summers.

Beekeeping is an enjoyable but complicated art. It requires time, patience, plenty of observation and a desire to learn. To be successful beekeepers must develop skills necessary to keep bees healthy and productive. The Flow Hive system offers an alternative method to produce honey, but it is only beekeeping equipment, it does not manage bees. There are also several things to learn that are necessary to keep the system operating properly.

Moving parts in a beehive tend to get clogged up. Brood, propolis and pollen in flow frames can all impair their operation. I highly recommend using excluders between brood and honey areas of Flow Hives to prevent queens from accessing the honey boxes. Likewise, in pollen rich areas it may be helpful to install pollen traps to reduce the amount of pollen in the hives. The Flow Hive website includes information on frame disassembly and more thorough cleaning if necessary.

Granulated honey can also cause problems in flow frames. To clean them out, after your crop is removed, spray the affected frames with a little water and place them in a box above the inner cover. The bees will come up through the feed hole and move the honey down to the brood nest.

In areas where bees form tight clusters and are confined for long periods of time due to inclement weather and lack of forage, excluders and Flow honey boxes must be removed after the honey gathering period. If not the bees will move upwards through the excluders to access their feed leaving their queens below to die.

I use two brood boxes, not one, when using the Flow System, to prevent crowding. Excluders and plastic Flow frames can inhibit bees from moving into honey boxes. Baiting flow frame honey boxes with brood frames from brood boxes or spraying flow frames with a thin mixture of honey will encourage your bees to move through excluders on to the frames.

You can use standard honey boxes with standard frames, and Flow boxes with Flow frames on the same hive. Standard boxes of drawn wax comb will help draw your bees through the excluders. At the end of the season you can leave the standard boxes of honey on the hives for bee feed after you remove the excluders and Flow boxes.

One full Flow frame will contain almost 3 kg of honey. Depending on the thickness of the honey it may take more than ½ hour to drain a frame. I have modified some of my Flow spigots to direct each frame’s honey vertically into 3 kg buckets through holes cut in their lids. I can leave two frames to drain into two buckets while I go about other tasks without the fear of my containers overflowing or debris or insects getting into the honey. I have even left frames to drain overnight.

In my area, we have intense but short nectar flows from minor sources like dandelion, tree fruits or black locust that usually only result in a frame or two of honey. That honey normally is mixed into the rest of the crop when it is extracted at season’s end. I’m looking forward to tapping off those honeys individually and sampling their unique flavours using the Flow System.

The Flow System is well suited for small time beekeepers yet is not practical for producing large amounts of honey for commercial operations. However, I can envisage commercial operators owning a Flow Hive or two to have fresh, delicious, high quality honey available to enjoy without starting up their large extracting systems.

The cost of the frames will put them out of range for many, although remember no expensive extracting system is necessary. Three Flow frames sell for UK£ 208 (€ 246, US $259), seven Flow frames for UK£ 358 (€ 424, US $447).

To now, my experience with the Flow System has been very positive. I believe it has a place in our beekeeping culture and look forward to using my equipment for many years to come.

The transparent panels make The Flow Hive an excellent observation hive: it is possible to see bees filling cells with honey. As an observation hive it will be useful in schools and for demonstration purposes

Photos © Bees for Development