Bee honey on tap? Easy honey extraction?

Nifty

Herd Master
Administrator
Joined
Nov 13, 2007
Messages
2,098
Reaction score
1,148
Points
343
I wonder if this is legit?

 

Latestarter

Novice; "Practicing" Animal Husbandry
Golden Herd Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2014
Messages
11,384
Reaction score
17,481
Points
623
Location
NE Texas
Interesting concept. Even if it did/does work, not sure I'd want to use it... All my neighbors would be coming by after sun down to fill their honey jars. Not easy for them to do that the current way.
 

greybeard

Herd Master
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Messages
5,940
Reaction score
10,803
Points
553
Location
East Texas
I wonder if this is legit?

I posted the same thing a little earlier in the hive section. Most beekeepers I've talked to have their doubts about the whole thing--appears to be from someone in Australia or New Zealand, but according to the comments under the video, some kind of patent has been applied for.
I cannot imagine a tap somehow being open all the time--every bee, wasp, yellow jacket, coon and skunk in 10 miles around would be robbing it fast as it flowed out--not to mention the dust and other undesirable junk blowing in the wind.
I do sometimes donate to crowdfunding requests but I think I'll pass on this one.

A little more info is coming out bit by bit--again I have NOTHING do with this--connected to it in no way, nor am I encouraging anyone to contribute to the endeavor or purchase anything from the makers of this 'invention":

How do the Flow™ 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 which resets the comb into the original position and allows the bees to chew the wax capping away, and fill it with honey again. The Flow frames are inserted into standard bee supers (boxes) in much the same way as standard frames, however the box itself is modified by cutting two access doorways in one end.

When the frames are inserted, the ends of the frames now form the end of the super. This allows access to the operating slots and honey pipe outlets.

You can see into the hive

Each Flow frame is designed with a unique transparent end allowing you to see into the hive. This means you can watch the bees turning nectar into honey and see when each comb is full and ready. Both children and adults get excited seeing the girls at work in their hive. Importantly you will be able to keep an eye on colony numbers thus giving you early detection of any problems within your hive.

Please note: it’s important to check the hive for disease and look after your colony as per usual. This does require keeping an eye on your bees and opening the hive and inspecting the brood if there are signs of pests or disease. Beekeepers usually check their brood once or twice a year. If you are new to beekeeping you will need to seek help from experienced beekeepers.

It’s a fantastic learning curve.

The extraction process is not only easier but much faster with a flow hive

The whole harvesting process ranges from 20 minutes to two hours depending on the viscosity of the honey.

Usually the bees don’t even discover you at the back of the hive. If you notice that the bees have discovered the collecting jar or bucket you can always cover the extracting pipes or make a lid with a hole for the pipe/s.

There is no more heavy lifting

The harvesting happens right at the hive without moving the super boxes at all. No more injured backs!

Undisturbed bees makes a happier, healthier hive

Because the hives are not regularly opened and pulled apart to be harvested, the bees are relatively undisturbed and they experience less overall stress. Although this may seem trivial, bee stress is a significant factor contributing to the strength of a bee colony.

Opening a hive also risks potential introduction of pests and disease. It’s nice not to squash bees in the process of honey harvesting.

The risk of stings is lower

Because the bees are going about their normal business while you are harvesting the honey from the back of the hive. We have found that the bees usually don’t even notice that you are there.

We still recommend you use a bee suit or veil if you are inexperienced, don’t know the particular hive or have a grumpy hive. A hive that is usually calm can be grumpy at times when the nectar flow is very slow.
Where to from here?

After many years of prototypes we now have a robust design that we have been testing for the last 3 years with beekeepers here in Australia as well as in America and Canada.

Now we want to share it with you.

The official launch of the Flow hive is on the 23rd of February

We are launching on the popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter.com.

Through our launch we hope to raise the funds to get this project off the ground and start producing and delivering these hives to you within the next four months.

Apparently, if a lot of people pledge early, then the whole thing snowballs. Conversely, if the pledging goes slowly then the project is less likely to fly. In our case we hope many people who want a Flow super to add to their beehive or who want a whole Flow beehive (the bees have to be obtained locally) will pledge on the 23rd or 24th giving us a chance to reach our target and start production.

The early pledges get an additional ‘early bird’ discount off the already discounted price giving an extra incentive to pledge quickly.

We’ll send you a reminder when the Kickstarter crowd-funding time begins on February 23rd, and we will be putting some more videos on our Facebook page and website soon.

We are also making a FAQ page on our website to answer all the great questions that are flooding in.
 
Last edited:

Nifty

Herd Master
Administrator
Joined
Nov 13, 2007
Messages
2,098
Reaction score
1,148
Points
343
Good question!

It sure will be interesting once they are produced and people start using them... I'm sure of the 4,000+ people who have already signed up to get one, a bunch will post their feedback, videos, etc.
 

babsbag

Herd Master
Joined
May 10, 2010
Messages
7,886
Reaction score
9,317
Points
593
Location
Anderson, CA
Looks like they met their goal and then some. Good for them and if the thing works I will start saving my pennies and buy one too.

Looking at the pictures of the hive and how they have cut the ends open I would be concerned about how the bees are going to protect that big of an opening. The frames had better fit dead tight against the ends of those boxes and we all know that bees can fit into pretty small spaces. Maybe I am just missing something.


hive.jpg
 
Last edited:

Bruce

Herd Master
Joined
Feb 4, 2016
Messages
17,435
Reaction score
45,775
Points
783
Location
NW Vermont
I read up on them about a month ago and watched their videos. Other than the expense they seem like the cat's meow for collecting the honey.

The picture shows their Flow frame in a specially designed box, there is a wood "filler" piece that would normally be in place and the plexiglass (or whatever the window is made of) would be covered. You can see glare on that window and a twist latch on the left side that would hold the left side of the cover closed when installed. The window is there so you can do some visual inspection of the comb without opening the box.

1) each "frame" is 2 sides of a nearly complete comb with a narrow vertical gap between them. The bees fill in that space to complete the cells.
2) when it is time to get the honey, you "split" the comb vertically (one side moves up, the other down) by inserting a crank handle at the top and the honey drains down to the bottom and out through a tube you insert into that hole at the bottom that you can see is capped in the picture. Once drained, you reverse crank to realign the comb sides.
3) you DO NOT just tap off some honey. You wait until that "frame" is totally full and drain it all.
4) you can drop these into an existing Langstroth super and can pull the frames to check them as you would a traditional frame.
5) These are just for the supers, you still have to have the lower boxes for the queen and brood and you still have to maintain them just as you would a hive where you pull the frames to get the honey out (crush or extract).

Benefits:
  1. Much easier extraction
  2. No ripping the super apart to extract the honey, much less stress on the bees (of course if you put it in an existing Langstroth and don't drill holes for the crank and tube, you would have to pull the hive apart to pull the frame to drain it)
  3. Much less "bee resource" needed to build the "comb"
Downsides:
  1. Expensive
  2. No wax comb if you want that
Bear in mind that I do not now and never have had bees, just investigating. Thus I can only pass on what I have "learned". If I remember correctly, the Australian son & father developers have been working on this concept for 10 years, multiple prototypes with their bee operation. They did crowd funding last winter/spring to get the capital to produce them commercially and started shipping in the last few months.
 
Last edited:

Happy Chooks

Loving the herd life
Joined
Sep 30, 2014
Messages
548
Reaction score
328
Points
153
Location
Northern CA
More downsides as I see it:

Moveable parts that can break
After the honey drains out, does it close securely?
 

mikiz

Loving the herd life
Joined
Jan 16, 2015
Messages
254
Reaction score
153
Points
183
What happens if the bees decide they want to put eggs in the frames instead?
 

Latest posts

Top