Strong flow in the N.C. Triad

[spafmagic]

I put my Flow Hive hybrid super (4 Flow Frames center, with 2 wooden frames on either side) atop my hive in mid-March. Less than 2 weeks later... this:


https://youtu.be/L6EvjaeSn0Y

Yeay!

[van from Arkansas]

Magic, I have no experience with a flow hive.  How do you know when the honey is cured?

[BeeMaster2]

Van, when the end frames are capped.
Jim Altmiller

[van from Arkansas]

Thanks Jim: I did not know they cap the honey in a flow hive.  Like I said., no experience.

[spafmagic]

....How do you know when the honey is cured?

Two ways really... either the traditional way of opening the hive to look inside and see if the cells are capped, or since bees work the frames from the center out to the edges, you can judge that the honey MAY be ready, when the cells in the transparent observation panels are full of honey.

Personally I would only use the second method only as an estimate that the honey may be ready, whereupon I would look inside the hive anyway to make sure the whole frame is capped.
** Edit **
Picture of one of my frames from late spring last year in Stokesdale North Carolina:

[Seeb]

Very interesting - has the flow hive been around awhile [proven]? How do you sit there and drain the honey without the bees bombing you?

[BeeMaster2]

If you remove honey during a flow, the bees don?t pay any attention to it. You remove honey from the back side of the hive. You insert a flat bar that has a 90 degree bend in it in the top if the frames. You turn it back and forth like a pendulum and this slides the sections of comb up and down. This opens the caps and allows the honey to drip down the center of the comb. You put a plastic tube in the bottom of the flow cell and it flows into the jar.
Jim Altmiller

[Seeb]

Thanks Jim - do you or have you tried this system?

[BeeMaster2]

Seen,
I have an 8 cell flow hive. It has been very difficult to get the bees to fill it.
Jim Altmiller

[spafmagic]

Seen,
... It has been very difficult to get the bees to fill it.
Jim Altmiller

Hey Jim, best way I found for them to take to it is to:
- render some beeswax, (I did it with some comb that was lightly stained with honey to add more of a scent to the wax)
- take a basting brush and while the wax is still liquid, dip it in.
- Hold the flow frames horizontally and brush the wax onto the downward-facing cells so gravity keeps the wax from going down into the mechanism.
- let wax harden.

My babies treated it like comb that needed to be repaired and they built on it.

[BeeMaster2]

Spaf,
I did that the last time I tried. We did get some very dry honey but it as not capped.
Jim Altmiller

[spafmagic]

I suppose not all honey bees are created equal =^_^=
*edit*
Other people have found that if other bees use it first, then put it in another hive, that Hive would use it just as well.

[Ben Framed]

I have never seen a flow hive, even on video until your video. I would like to ask, what are the advantages of a flow hive versus a conventional hive? What are the disadvantages?

Phillip

[spafmagic]

...what are the advantages of a flow hive versus a conventional hive? What are the disadvantages?

Phillip

I honestly don't think there are any disadvantages per se... in the ideal situation where bees take to it and they work it just like any other frame, the one major advantage is that you can extract the honey straight from the frame without the need for traditional extraction procedures.

A lot of people are resistant to the Flow Hive system because they're under the impression that the creators either directly or indirectly encouraged laziness, because the super is marketed as such that you don't have to remove the frames in order to extract the honey and in turn leave the bees fairly undisturbed...
The laziness factor, is far from the case... they do in fact say within their subsequent videos, after such thoughts started to surface, that you have to take care of your bees like any other hive; checking for pests, preventing swarming... ect...

All in all, the flow Hive is just an easier way to extract honey rather than spending all that effort futzing with wax frames, brushing the bees off, cutting the wax caps off, putting it into a centrifuge, and having to put it all back into the hive later on.

[spafmagic]

Very interesting - has the flow hive been around awhile [proven]? How do you sit there and drain the honey without the bees bombing you?

It has been around for a while yes... it has been proven and I've used it twice already, though both times, it was late in both spring, and the fall flow wasn't that great last year, so I took it off the hive both times to extract what I could, giving back the fall honey to the bees before putting it up for winter.

But to answer your question as to how not to get bombed by the bees... just as Jim said, the drainage system is supposed to face back end of the hive... This way you're not standing in front of them while the honey is being drained out. I also put clear 1 inch internal diameter PVC hosing on the extraction tube that goes in the hole of the frame, so I could guide the honey directly into a 1 gallon jug. The hose and the hole are just big/small enough to prevent bees from getting between the hose and the hole of the jug. And it helps to have calm bees. LOL.