Flow Hive

Schematic showing the way that the flow hive cells offset during honey collection, allowing honey to flow freely.

The Flow Hive is a beehive designed to allow honey to be extracted simply by turning a lever: the hive does not have to be opened and the bees are not disturbed as in normal extraction.

The frames contain a partially-formed plastic honeycomb lattice with vertical gaps. Bees fill in these gaps with beeswax and fill the cells with honey. When the mechanism of the frames is activated, the vertical gaps are offset by one half of a cell, breaking the wax seal and allowing the honey to flow down through the cells into a channel at the base of each frame and out into a collection vessel.[1] The system is then reset and the bees remove the capping and reseal the cells, beginning the process again.[1]

Queen excluders are recommended to keep the queen from laying brood in the flow cells.[2] The Flow Hive system costs significantly more than traditional hives, limiting their commercial usefulness,[2] though its inventors say that cost benefits due to decreased labor costs realized during informal semi-commercial trials, and the premium prices Flow honey can fetch, are increasing its appeal to the commercial sector.

The design has since been copied by Chinese (USA-registered shell company) Tapcomb.[3] Co-inventor Cedar Anderson says this copy clearly infringes on their patents, which cover all designs that have split cells to drain honey.[3]

Crowdfunding campaigns

The Flow Hive system 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 $70,000 for a custom injection mould. Instead, they raised over $12 million and received nearly 25,000 orders from over 130 countries.[4] The campaign broke several records for Indiegogo, becoming its most successful campaign.[5] By March 2018, 51,000 orders had been shipped and a more featured hive was released through a second Indiegogo campaign.[6]

The Flow Hive 2, which included a number of small improvements, was launched via another crowdfunding campaign in early 2018.[7] The second campaign raised over $14.9 million.[8]

Criticisms of the design

There were speculative criticisms of the design made by a beekeeping journalist and blogger during the first Indiegogo campaign.[9] These were widely circulated on the internet and repeated by the mainstream media.

  • Use of plastic comb: Wax comb, secreted by the bees, helps to remove toxins from the honey that the bees collected. Some believe plastic comb may inadvertently keep toxins in the honey and act as a barrier to the environment.[9]
  • Crystallization: Especially in colder climates, honey can thicken or crystallize, preventing honey from flowing.[9] This can be addressed only by either waiting for the bees to remove the crystallised honey, or soaking the frame in water to dissolve it away.[10]
  • 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.[11][12]

While some beekeepers have called the Flow Hive "a solution in search of a problem",[11] others note that the Flow Hive simplifies the arduous practice of extracting honey, especially for small beekeepers because expensive extraction equipment (centrifuge, filters) are not required.[13]

Impact on amateur beekeeping

In Australia, a rapid increase in new members joining existing beekeeping clubs, the capping of new memberships by some clubs and the establishment of at least one new club have been attributed to the Flow Hive.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 "How Flow Works". Honeyflow.com.
  2. 1 2 De La Portilla, Eliza (17 March 2015). "Why We Will Not Be Using Flow Hives in Our Apiary". Huffington Post.
  3. 1 2 Hendy, Nina (14 April 2017). "Flow Hive inventor stung by Chinese 'copycat'". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  4. ↑ Hassall, Craig (12 September 2017). "Flow Hive: Cedar and Stuart Anderson talk about life one year after crowdfunding success". ABC Online.
  5. ↑ Sawers, Paul (March 9, 2015). "Indiegogo's new crowdfunding record: $5.3M and counting for a smart beekeeping system". Venture Beat. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  6. ↑ "Second Indiegogo Flow Hive campaign". Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  7. ↑ Haridy, Rich (2018-03-28). "New Flow Hive 2 makes getting honey on tap even easier". newatlas.com. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  8. ↑ "Flow Hive 2". Indiegogo. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  9. 1 2 3 3 Reasons To Go Against The Flow Hive By Maryam Henein | Apr 9, 2015 | June 21, 2017 https://www.honeycolony.com/article/against-flow-hive/
  10. ↑ "Crystallised Honey & Flow Frames Does The Honey Crystallise In The Flow Frame? - Flow Hive". www.honeyflow.com. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
  11. 1 2 Gillespie, Alison (5 January 2016). "He Said, She Said, They Said: What's the Final Verdict on the Wildly Popular Flow Hive?". Modern Farmer. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  12. ↑ Ross Conrad, Bee Culture: The American Magazine of Beekeeping, April 20, 2015 http://www.beeculture.com/flow-hive/
  13. ↑ Romeo, Claudia (21 November 2016). "Two Australian guys fixed the most annoying thing about beekeeping". Business Insider Australia.
  14. ↑ Forbes, Tom (28 December 2017). "Beekeeping booms but clubs fear hive health may suffer". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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