- I have no doubt they are genuine people who have stumbled on something that had consequences they could never have expected.
- It is a brilliant technical solution.
- its a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.
The FH rode on the back of a perfect storm.
- The people who make it seem to be nice entirely reasonable people so buyers don't think they are being ripped off.
- It taps [excuse pun] into peoples well meaning, and probably ill-informed wish to 'help the bees'.
- It promises easy honey and not having to disturb the bees getting it thereby appealing to our eco side
- The press were able to give it mass coverage as they originally wanted £70000 to develop it and got $13m and there's nothing like nice people making loads of money selling something ecologically sound to produce endless column inches.
Bee keepers more experienced that I have pointed out numerous possible technical issues with the FH but my main problems with the hive are twofold.
Firstly I think they are bee hives for people who don't want to keep bees. Bees are not nice friendly things like cats and dogs and you don't have any sort of relationship with them. They are utterly unaware of us and can be difficult to manage if provoked or ill. The promise of not having to get involved and having easy honey is obviously attractive.
Secondly I think I think its based on a false premise.
Out of curiosity after my initial blog I set up a eBay search for Flow Hives. Nothing for a long time and then like buses four turned up in the space of a couple of weeks.
FH1 - Sold for £500. Auction said 'beat the queue. Avoid the wait'
FH2 - started at 99p but didn't last a few hours because the auction was closed as 'the item is no longer available'. The is eBay speak for 'someone offered me a shed load of money so I took it'.
FH3 - sold for £511.
FH4 - Simon Sprott misjudged this as it wasn't sold at £599 and wasn't re-listed.
All four were unused and the sellers didn't have nor had any other bee keeping equipment for sale.
Two of the auctions were because of a 'change in circumstances'. I suspect this could be translated as
' Because of the press coverage I bought one of these things as I wanted to make some money out of it but couldn't admit this so lets pretend there has been a change in my circumstances'.
One of the change in circumstances said she 'ordered this and learnt about bee keeping'. I wonder if she meant to say she ''ordered this and learnt about bee keeping' by reading a book'?
Anybody who tries to keep bees after reading a book is at best misguided. I'm reading a book about open heart surgery but I don't feel too confident about giving it a go without help.
I had a look at the Flow Hive web site which is nice looking and well laid out. In the UK I find beekeeping forums to be populated by grumpy old men who seem to take delight in ridiculing questions from new bee keepers, saying things they would never say to their face.
The Flow Hive forum is noticeably different from the UK ones and there are lots of questions that the Grumpy Old Men would have a field day with.
If you put Flow Hive in Google you will find listing of sites saying things like:-
Turn the Flow™ Key and watch as pure, fresh honey flows right out of the hive and into your jar. No mess, no fuss, no heavy lifting, and no expensive processing equipment.
Through the clear end-frame view, you can see when the honey is ready without opening up the hive. The extraction process is so gentle, the bees barely notice at all
Flow is a revolutionary beehive invention, allowing you to harvest honey without opening the hive and with minimal disturbance to the bees.The USP's of the Flow Hive seem to be 'honey on tap' and 'not disturbing the bees'.
In the previous blog I mentioned the part of the promotional video where a pair of gurning hippies were pouring honey over their waffles [no bees in sight strangely] and it seems to me the hive is just turning a bee hive into a vending machine so we can have the convenience of honey whenever we want it, irrespective of what else is going on in the hive.
As for the 'not disturbing bees', I had a look at the FAQ section.
In reply to the FAQ
'If I get a Flow Hive does this mean I never have to open the hive?' [the FH is for people who probably don't like bees but just want honey after all] ,the reply is
'All Flow™ hives need to be opened for inspection, just like regular beehives.'In reply to the FAQ
'Do I need to smoke the hive',the reply is
No, not when you are operating the Flow™ comb or just viewing the bees........You will still need a smoker to do the routine inspection of the brood nest.
So the FH web site says that apart from extraction you will still need to routinely open the hive which during swarming season can be every 9 days and you should still smoke them as you would do a normal hive. So no saving in disturbance there.
Therefore the FH only apparently reduces disturbance to the bees when honey is extracted. People are often surprised when I say extraction normally takes place twice a year.
When honey is extracted from a FH the frames are split in two which I would have thought slightly disturbing. Also as the cappings are still on the hive the bees have to stop making honey, chew the old cappings off and start again.
I think routine inspections which FH'ers still have to do regularly, are far more disturbing than honey extraction. When I extract honey from my hives, I lift off the supers and place them on two blocks near the hive leaving plenty of space for the bees to get out from underneath. On top of the supers I put a frame with hession spread over it which is spraying with a liquid that is 'A non-toxic blend of natural oils and herb extracts for clearing bees quickly from supers.' The bees leave the supers which are empty in 2-5 minutes and return to new supers placed on the hive.
So is the FH really reducing disturbance to the bees?
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