

Flow Hive breaks $1M on first day - andyjsong
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flow-hive-honey-on-tap-directly-from-your-beehive/x/8900185#

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blazespin
This is just a fad trying to promise easy honey from a spigot. A short read by
real beekeeper blogs and you discover that 90% of the work of managing a
beehive is the inspections you need to do every 2 weeks - not the honey
extraction. Without inspecting for mites, diseased bees, missing queens (and
understanding how to deal with this), etc, your hive will likely fail and
you'll just have source all those bees again. Much cheaper (and humane) to
just buy honey at a local farmers market.

Note that when doing inspections everyone suggests you'll need smoke + veil +
etc as you have to remove the frames and look at them closely. Even the flow
website recommends this (noticeably missing in the video, though)

So what does this really buy you? A great crowdfunding video.

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schiffern
Ignoring the inflated labor-saving claims for a moment, isn't it still
valuable for home-scale (1-3 hives) as an alternative to buying a centrifuge?
I could see having a super with Flow for directly jarring honey, and a couple
regular supers for comb honey.

I agree that the marketing is badly done, but I'm trying to look past that and
see real use cases. It would be great if they added a "What do I need to get
started _in addition to Flow_?" shopping list in their FAQ.

If the claims of beeswax reuse by the bees are accurate, it might conserve the
hive's metabolic budget. It seems plausible, but IANAA.

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schiffern
_Update:_ Whoof, they're $60/frame. Hard to justify the labor savings,
especially with all the unknowns — crystallization, plastic leaching,
longevity. An centrifuge can be had for <$300, and there are cheaper low-tech
methods too.

I think I'll go with (even easier to harvest!) DIY mason jar beekeeping
instead. The bees package your comb honey for you! You still need regular
supers for winter stores. [http://makezine.com/craft/how-to-mason-jar-
beehives/](http://makezine.com/craft/how-to-mason-jar-beehives/)

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rtpg
Can anyone here comment on the veracity of this? Seems like a no-brainer based
off of the video that even large-scale producers would want to go with this
sort of hive.

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akanet
This is such a great feel-good story. Scrappy entrepreneurship generates a
win-win for humans AND bees!

Not to take away from the larger problems facing the bee ecosystem, but I love
that this project is getting attention. The careful, diligent application of
technology _can_ solve serious problems. We just have to do the legwork.

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wallflower
Related: [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/science/now-cleared-for-
la...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/science/now-cleared-for-landing-at-
airports-bees.html)

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joshontheweb
Makes me want to get a hive myself.

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confiscate
This looks great!

