Flow Hive is a

beehive A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus '' Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature ...

brand that has a unique honey frame designed to allow

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

extraction without needing to open the beehive. During extraction, visibly bees are disturbed less than during other methods.

Design

The honey frames contain a partially-formed

honeycomb A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal prismatic wax cells built by honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey. Honey bees consume about of honey ...

with vertical gaps that is made of a

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

free of both BPA and BPS. These honey frames are for use in the

Langstroth hive In modern American beekeeping, a Langstroth hive is any vertically modular beehive that has the key features of vertically hung frames, a bottom board with entrance for the bees, boxes containing frames for brood and honey (the lowest box for th ...

compartment commonly called

honey super A honey super is a part of a commercial or other managed (such as by a hobbyist) beehive that is used to collect honey. The most common variety is the "Illinois" or "medium" super with a depth of 6 inches, in the length and width dimensions of a ...

that is intended for accumulation of honey by bees. Bees fill in these vertical gaps with

wax Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to giv ...

to complete cells, and then fill these cells with honey before covering them with wax. When the mechanism of a frame is activated by inserting and turning a crank mechanically, the vertical gaps are offset by one half of a cell. This breaks the wax covering and allows the honey to flow down through the cells into a channel at the base of each frame and out into a collection vessel, obviating the need for extraction equipment such as

centrifuge A centrifuge is a device that uses centrifugal force to separate various components of a fluid. This is achieved by spinning the fluid at high speed within a container, thereby separating fluids of different densities (e.g. cream from milk) or ...

s and filters. After the frame is reset, the bees remove the broken covering, and repair and refill the cells. Flow Hive honey frames comprise more plastic and plastic surface than the plastic foundations used commonly in conventional modern beekeeping. However, the

brood chamber In beekeeping, bee brood or brood refers to the eggs, larvae and pupae of honeybees. The brood of Western honey bees develops within a bee hive. In man-made, removable frame hives, such as Langstroth hives, each frame which is mainly occupied by ...

located in the Flow Hive below the honey super may contain hive frames that intend bees to make brood comb entirely from their own wax. Patents for the Flow Hive cover all designs that have split cells to drain honey. A company called TapComb that infringed on these patents ceased trading in late 2018.

Crowdfunding

The Flow Hive design was invented in Australia by Cedar Anderson and his father Stuart Anderson. In February 2015, they launched a campaign on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo hoping to raise A$70,000 for a custom injection mould. Instead, they raised over $12 million and received nearly 25,000 orders from over 130 countries. The campaign broke several records for Indiegogo, becoming its most successful campaign as of that time. The Flow Hive 2, which includes a number of small improvements, was launched using another crowdfunding campaign in early 2018.

Criticism

There were speculative criticisms of the design made by beekeeping journalists and bloggers during the first Indiegogo campaign. * Use of plastic comb: Some have criticized the use of plastic combs in the Flow Hive; however, plastic foundations are commonly used in conventional beekeeping today. In addition the Flow Hive uses a food-certified plastic in the honey super only which allows the bees to produce their own natural wax comb in the brood nest. This also allows for a healthy blend of traditional and modernized beekeeping as well as maintaining a food safe system. * Crystallization: Especially in colder climates, honey can thicken or crystallize, preventing honey from flowing. If this prevents operation of the Flow Hive mechanism, it can be addressed by either waiting for the bees to remove the crystallized honey, or by soaking the frame in water to dissolve it away. * Promotion as 'honey on tap': In the first advertisements for the Flow Hive, it was marketed as a way to remove honey "without disturbing the bees". Many experienced beekeepers took issue with this, as they said it promoted a lack of maintenance of hives. Bee hives require regular maintenance and observation to check for diseases and other problems that might arise. Cedar Anderson responded to the criticism, changing the way that the Flow Hive was marketed, and specifying that all that changes with the Flow Hive system is the process of harvesting of honey, and that the rest of the beekeeping process should remain the same.

Reception

In Australia, a rapid increase in new members joining existing beekeeping clubs in 2017, the capping of new memberships by some clubs, and the establishment of at least one new club were attributed to the Flow Hive.

Effects

A study comparing

s to the Flow Hive has found no significant differences in the microbial populations of bees' bodies in these hives.

References