# Flow Hive Honey on Tap Directly From Your Beehive



## cornbread (Jul 4, 2005)

Way out of my price range

Flow Hive Honey on Tap Directly From Your Beehive
Byron Bay, Australia

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flow-hive-honey-on-tap-directly-from-your-beehive

some of the perks are already sold out.

In a nutshell:

Flowâ¢ is the most significant innovation in beekeeping since 1852.â 

Flow is a revolutionary beehive invention, allowing you to harvest honey without opening the hive and with minimal disturbance to the bees.

Itâs the beekeeepers dreamâ¦

Turn the tap and watch as pure, fresh, clean honey flows right out of the hive and into your jar. No mess, no fuss, no expensive processing equipment without disturbing the bees.

We are excited to introduce our new invention that allows you to enjoy fresh honey straight out of your beehive without opening it. Itâs far less stress for the bees and much, much easier for the beekeeper.

âThis really is a revolution. You can see into the hive, see when the honey is ready and take it away in such a gentle wayâ.
It will help the bees and it will help beekeepers. They both help our world. Please join us in this beekeeping evolution.

Their website: http://www.honeyflow.com/

Father and Son Team:


"I thought, there had to be a better way."

"Many years ago....I went down to one of my beehives, which I knew was a pretty wild hive. It was getting on towards evening and a bit of a grey day, not the best time for beekeeping!

So I put on the bee vale my grandma made me and pressed the gaffa tape back on the mesh that covered the holes. Then I put on my glove, (I couldnât find the second one). I fired up the smoker and blew plenty of smoke into the hive. When I opened the lid my suspicions were confirmed. The bees werenât happy about being disturbed. I pulled the sleeve over my gloveless hand, blew some more smoke into the hive and pulled some nice frames of honey out.

The hive was packed with bees and it was near impossible to get the honey out without squashing lots of them. I really donât like squashing bees! The bees became grumpier and started to sting me through my bee suit. They weren't happy. I put the hive back together, squashing more bees as the lid went on and ended up running away across the field thinkingâ¦there has to be a better way! *So my Dad and I set to work on a decade long task of inventing the beekeepers dream*.

We are so happy to say, now you can harvest the honey with little disturbance to the bees. It's a dream come true for us and we are actually quite surprised ourselves at just how well our Flow frames work. A bit like turning a tapâ¦the honey drains right out of the hive. Much easier for the beekeeper, and much less stress for the bees.


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## beegrowing (Apr 1, 2014)

The longer thread on this topic,right Here,that there are comments on, is "a new kind of hive"..... since the day before they started the fundraising.
PS--They added thousands of more perks when the first lots ran out so fast.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

I have to ask ,,, how do you remove the caps from the cells ?
cause if you do not remove the caps the cell will take a long ,,long ,,long time to drain and how do the bees refill them with caps ????

if this new thing removes the caps were do they go ??
and how do you see if the comb is all caped if you do not pull the frams and look ????
and its plastic never had any luck at all with plastic the girls wouldnt hardly do any thing with plastic waxed or not,,,, yea how could they wax the inside of the cells

sounds like a LOT of sales pitch and bull c***


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## Jreed (Dec 24, 2014)

Fascinating! And they have taken in over 3 million dollars already, wow!

On the other hand...

There add campaign is very strong, hmmm.

The frames are plastic, hmmm.

All the cells are the same size, unlike natural hives, hmmmmm.

The bees don't build there own comb, which means all the comb is the wrong size, hmmmmmm.

It's number one feature, as far as I can tell, is human convenience, hmmmmmmmmmmm.


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## Jreed (Dec 24, 2014)

most people over manage hives. Langstroth hives require excessive management to begin with. Top bar and Warre hives both require considerable less management even for splitting hives. If bees are happy and healthy you do not need to mess with them all the time and harvesting honey is a once a year joyful occasion. What is wrong with something that is simple and easy to begin with, and also creates healthy happy bees. Seems like marketing is the only real thing that flow tap has going for it, similar to the amish made heaters perhaps?


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

if so high number has been sold ,,, why has no one from the 4 bee forms i look at ever heard of them ,, like here who has one ??????????
theres what 10901 members


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## Jreed (Dec 24, 2014)

sold before being manufactured or shipped


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## stockdogcompany (Jan 25, 2015)

Jreed,

They have decent information about how they work on their site. Here's a cut and paste for some of your questions. You can find out more with a little bit of work yourself.

How do the Flowâ¢ frames work?
The Flow frame consists of already partly formed honeycomb cells. The bees complete the comb with their wax, fill the cells with honey and cap the cells as usual. When you turn the tool, a bit like a tap, the cells split vertically inside the comb forming channels, allowing the honey to flow down to a sealed trough at the base of the frame and out of the hive, while the bees are practically undisturbed on the comb surface.

When the honey has finished draining, you turn the tap again in the upper slot which resets the comb into the original position and allows the bees to chew the wax capping away, and fill it with honey again.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

they say that 2.5 millon dollars worth sold already ,,,,, lets say each person paid $1000 for what they got ,,, thats 2500 buyers ,,, is it not funny that no one on this or other bee sights ,,,has ever posted about this ,, or , have never run it to any one that has ... none of the bee clubs never had any feed back on them ,,, to me it sounds like BULL

if the bees dont build on plastic founation ( waxed )why would they build out on plastic comb with not waxed


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## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

tom j said:


> they say that 2.5 millon dollars worth sold already ,,,,, lets say each person paid $1000 for what they got ,,, thats 2500 buyers ,,, is it not funny that no one on this or other bee sights ,,,has ever posted about this ,, or , have never run it to any one that has ... none of the bee clubs never had any feed back on them ,,, to me it sounds like BULL


Not strange at all, as it is a preorder. It's a new product and they haven't actually shipped any yet. Their ad campaign went viral, so their preorder sales are out of this world too.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

ok ,,, I think I will wait 2 to 4 years and see what every one thinks then ,, see how they work out

they allso say it was reworked ( changed ) in 2013 so were are the combs from before it was reworked


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## stockdogcompany (Jan 25, 2015)

Tom J,

Everyone fits on this curve differently. Advantages to each place. Innovators and early adopters get a jump start with better technology. Later adopters forgo some risks, but are always a little later to the party. 

It takes all kinds to make the world go round!


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## the kid (Jul 9, 2006)

don't take it as I dont like new things ,, cause I do ,,, what I mean is ,,, to me it sounds funny that if all that many sold ,, and how bee keeps talk to each other ,,, why no one has one ,,,or knew of the new frames .....

cause at they say 2900 out of 3500 has been claimed 
that means 2900 bee keeps have complete hives plus the keeps that only got a few frames ,,, now why no one knows about them sounds odd .....


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## Rhee (Jan 15, 2015)

The way these crowdfunding things work is that you are not 'buying' a product, you're 'investing' in a product, and your reward, 'dividend', if you will, is that you actually GET a product a year from now when they're all manufactured. These guys are looking for start-up capital so that they can mass-produce.

As someone who is very interested in beekeeping but hasn't actually taken the plunge yet, I'm hoping i can scrounge up the dollars to support this before the campaign is over.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

this will be my last post about this ,,, but it still dose not sound right that 3500 have put up hundreds of $$$$$ and this is the first any one has asked ,, posted ,, known about it ,, must have been a secret ,,, as they say they have been selling them for OVER 2 years


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

tom j said:


> this will be my last post about this ,,, but it still dose not sound right that 3500 have put up hundreds of $$$$$ and this is the first any one has asked ,, posted ,, known about it ,, must have been a secret ,,, as they say they have been selling them for OVER 2 years


They have been testing them for two years. They have not sold one yet.


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## nchobbyfarm (Apr 10, 2011)

I asked a local bee keeper this morning if he had seen this ad. His immediate question while I played the video was "where are the bees?". He wanted to know why the bees were not attracted to the flowing honey. Anyone have any ideas how to answer his question?


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## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

I'm convinced that when they filmed the video, they closed off the entrance to the hive the night before, so the bees couldn't get out while they were filming. In some of their other videos you can see a set up where the tubes go through a lid into the jar, so it is sealed off, but I would think the bees would still be able to smell it and come around.


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## Paul O (Sep 13, 2004)

There is a lot of hype about the Flow Hive and a lot of misconceptions. I certainly wouldn't recommend it for beginners. I also doubt if it will ever be utilized as touted i.e. wall-to-wall beehives with faucets on them. Having said that, I believe that it has potential and as such I'm going to give it a try. I'm envisioning one hive in the apiary with the flow hive and several with standard setups. At harvest time honey could be extracted from the flow hive, which utilizes a deep super. It could then be replaced by a full, shallow super from another hive. I don't know what ratio of flow vs. standard would ultimately work out but I bet I will learn more about bees while I try to figure it out than I have thus far (probably 10 yrs or so). I'm willing to take the time to work with it for the learning experience and if it can be made to work it will be an awesome advancement in beekeeping. If it doesn't work I can live with that, having tried.


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