So you may be familiar with the flow hive. They had a huge Go Fund Me run a few years ago while they were developing their product.
Well, a local friend now has one of these hives and we are keeping up each week with its progress and sharing that with you. This week, you may notice there is a cargo strap holding down the hive. I haven't talked to the hive owner this week because she was busy elsewhere. But I'm guessing the strap is there because there was a BEAR scare in town this past week. A bear was seen by locals and law enforcement over by the middle school.
Right now, school is out for the summer so there were no kids around. This flow hive was attacked last summer by a bear and so the owners brought it into town in hopes of having less issues. Let's hope the bear stays away.
Another item of note, was that I noticed ants on and around the hive. I'm not sure this is an area of concern or not. Bees I've heard will defend their hive up to a point. So I'm really looking for feedback on this issue.
Enjoy the video!
HERE IS LAST WEEKS VIDEO!
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Those pesky ants, they don’t leave anyone alone, do they? Their motto must be “No home left behind.” We get ants in our house every August.
Yeah we fought some off this year at our house too.
My son has a Flow Hive in an urban setting in Saskatchewan, Canada. There was one concern there about it being too cold for the final extraction to be able to flow properly. The good thing about being in the city is the extra heat generated by the concrete,etc. so all was fine and they got some delicious honey flowing right into their jars. Where is this Flow Hive located? My granddaughter loves the bees and the great thing about the flow hive is the little window that you can watch the bees inside. They got their bees from the New Zealand and they are very docile too. My son also got a second hive - just a regular one and a small hand extractor. What a difference in collecting your honey, from the flow hive, where all you have to do is turn the tap and the regular extraction process, where you have to disturb the bees by taking the frames out, and it's also very messy having to clean up the machine each time. They are very happy with their Flow Hive.
This one is located in Arkansas. There should be plenty of season time to get the top box full.
Yes you should be okay there.
Those are some passive bees to allow ants to start crawling around their hive. Too much vodka. @ironshield
Great information, especially about the Russian bees.
I must have missed the post from last week, oh I did notice the music on that video...sounded like something Aaron over at @myhomesteaded my enjoy! :-D
I have seen mixed results from the flow hive so I will be interested in seeing how it works out for you!
Glad to see this posted here, I have been interested in the flowhive and how it works in a real setting.
We are working with killer bees and they are very aggressive they are not called killer bee for anything.
We get ants every year. We have these little homemade traps made with sugar, water and a little boric acid. Kills the nest.
Hello, I have a regular hive, and shied away from using the flow hive for a couple reasons, the primary reason was (please tell me if I am wrong) the flow hive does not leave enough food for the bees. Have you encountered this with the flow hive? Do the bees seem happy? (other than the bear attack)