Extractor-less honey by Flow Hive

[ABruce]

I used mine two years ago, after the last draining of the year I put it away cappings intact. Last spring I put it on a hive and when the flow started the bees must have opened the cappings because they filled the frames again, like most things inside the hive the bees seem to know what they are doing better than me

[IAmTheWaterbug]

The two frames produced two distinctively different colors of honey.

Nice photo! It looks like a very little bit of the color difference might be in the lighting, because the right jar is in the sun, but it's clear that the two honeys are very different in color.

Did they taste different?

[IAmTheWaterbug]

>You don't get little bee parts in the honey?

None whatsoever.

I'm curious as to what happens if you "crack" cells with brood in them. Of course the brood will die, but it doesn't seem like brood is liquid enough to flow through the honey channels. I suppose a tiny bit of "bee goo" might "contaminate" the honey, especially if the brood have been laid near the bottom of the frame so that lots of honey is "washing" it down, but I can't imagine it would be much more than we get in traditionally-harvested honey.

[Michael Bush]

Brood is very unlikely. The cells are too deep and the wrong diameter. I've never seen brood in them and I don't use an excluder.

[Eddie Honey]

This fella documents what to do when there is brood in the Flow frames: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EDiFw6gxEc

[IAmTheWaterbug]

This fella documents what to do when there is brood in the Flow frames: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EDiFw6gxEc

Actually he just laments the fact that he has brood up there*, and talks about preventing it in future with a QE. But he doesn't actually say what he's going to do about it.

I suppose putting it above an excluder for 3 weeks would take care of things, as the brood would have emerged by then.

*that video also could easily have been edited down to about 1/4 of it's present length. I played it back at 2x speed, and even then it was too long!

[odfrank]

>*that video also could easily have been edited down to about 1/4 of it's present length. I played it back at 2x speed, and even then it was too long!

That is so true of many beekeeper YouTube videos. Get to the point for gods sake....I've go things to do. And even worse is how many teach a funky way to do something very simple.

[ABruce]

I have never used an excluder with my flow hive. I had enough trouble getting the bees to use it I never wanted to add more challenges. And with really strong colonies under it I have never had brood or pollen in the flow hive frames.

[IAmTheWaterbug]

More trouble on the horizon: https://tapcomb.com/

Tapcomb is live! When I first saw these ads popping into my Facebook feed I just assumed they were a patent-infringing knockoff. But then I looked into them more carefully, and they've applied for their own patents on a design that may be different enough from Flow's to make both products mutually non-infringing. From:

https://www.facebook.com/tapcomb/posts/1327565393998659

Tapcomb does not provide an artificial honeycomb! Our frames are approximately 30% complete and only become a honeycomb once bees have completed 70% of the frame with their own natural beeswax. This fundamental difference in both principle and methodology makes the two frames very different.

Their design supposedly keeps the cappings intact during harvest.

I'm no patent lawyer, but if Tapcomb can prove their patent claims, I could see both products being valid, from an intellectual property point of view.

If that happens, then we have legitimate competition! A Tapcomb deep with 6 tappable frames is $269, which is far less expensive than Flow's 7-frame Classic Cedar. Still very expensive, but having 2 vendors in the marketplace will drive prices down over time, especially if they keep manufacturing in volume and figure out to do it better and better.

I can't wait to see someone (e.g. not me ) do a side-by-side comparison test!

[Michael Bush]

Since the flow hive leaves the caps completely intact, the Tapcomb people are already lying by claiming they are the first to do that. I am curious how well it actually works. It looks like they did the same thing as the flow hive except they only did it to the back part of the cell. My experience is that with an intact cell and a midrib the honey does not drain. With the caps intact it seems like it's just the same issue. It looks like a rip off with just enough changed to hope they can get someone to allow a patent on it. Time will tell.

[odfrank]

I still think it is silly that the Flow Team ships undersize equipment to the American market. This is a Mann Lake slatted rack on a Flow 10 frame bottom board.

[Michael Bush]

I only have the eight frame ones, but I have heard the 10 frame boxes are 16" instead of 16 1/4" and that's what your picture looks like. My guess is (and only a guess) that the frames just worked out that way. Of course if they used a 7/8" board on the sides they could resolve it without changing the inside space... but that may not be as simple in reality as it is in theory...

[odfrank]

Another disappointment with the ten frame Flow being made the wrong size. I went to stack wet extracting supers on and their 16" wide telescoping cover would not fit on my American 16 1/4" wide supers.



<a href='https://postimg.cc/image/n4doqbnl1/' rel="nofollow" target='_blank'><img src='https://s26.postimg.cc/n4doqbnl1/2018-06-25

[Eddie Honey]

Size DOES matter! lol

I expected this thread to be overwhelmed with success stories and harvesting pictures by now: Anyone?

[Michael Bush]

>I expected this thread to be overwhelmed with success stories and harvesting pictures by now: Anyone?

https://www.beesource.com/forums/show...88#post1591688

[cfalls]

Brood is very unlikely. The cells are too deep and the wrong diameter. I've never seen brood in them and I don't use an excluder.

I did manage to get brood in a flow super last summer by adding a queen excluder below it, assuming the queen wasn't up in the super. I don't think laying in the flow cells was her preference, but with enough idiocy you can apparently make it happen.

[Michael Bush]

Yes, reports are that the queen will lay in them under some circumstances. But the size of cell and the depth of cell is definitely a discouragement for her to lay.

[NiceBee15]

Hi Dominic, Did you go to Apimonida in Montreal this year? You would have seen Flow Hive there as they had a stand & they were doing awesome demonstrations. No scam. I have 3 & they are amazing.

[Oldtimer]

Yes, reports are that the queen will lay in them under some circumstances. But the size of cell and the depth of cell is definitely a discouragement for her to lay.

Queens will lay in about anything, if they have a mind. Here, I left the back cover off my jenter unit, and guess what the queen did. This, when she had the whole rest of the hive to lay in!!

The bottom right plugs with no larvae are the ones I removed to get queen cells started, using larvae on the other (correct) side of the plugs.