We have all seen the great new invention called the Flow hive which allows honey to be harvested through tubes into a container without opening the hive and disrupting the bees. This is an innovative and brilliant new addition to apiculture and will make it a lot easier for beekeepers to extract honey without having to buy expensive extracting equipment.
Several people have approached us recently to state that they have ordered a Flow hive and wish to buy bees for November when they expect to get their hive.
Unfortunately, these people expect that the bees will be added directly to the Flow box they buy. This box is a honey super and is not a brood chamber where the Queen lays her eggs and the young bees are produced. To start up a hive, we first need to have a bottom box with frames for the brood and then a queen excluder to ensure that the special Flow box is only available to the worker bees for honey production. It is not as simple as adding bees to the Flow box as usual hive infrastructure is required as well. Swarm control can also require another full depth super with frames directly above the excluder so that frames can be exchanged between the first two boxes. This would mean that the Flow box could actually be the third box of the hive.
It is important that enthusiastic beginning beekeepers research carefully and have a clear picture of what is required before they acquire this wonderful new invention.