New Operation Wants to Install Flow Hives - Feedback please

We will soon have a new organic growout facility/farm and we are planning on installing a rather new invention called FLOW HIVES.

These are enclosed bee hives that have upwards of 15 supers inside of them.  The worker does not even need to put on safety gear in order to get the honey as there is a drainage pipe that pumps the honey out thru a spigot that you just turn one way to start the flow of honey - never needing to open the housing unit itself except for once a month to scrape off beeswax.

Our plan is to get the entire operation up and running by early Spring of next year and get SQF certified at some point in 2023.

I know there are some honey people on this forum and would like any feedback you have on this new invention called a flow hive?  Good or bad is great.

Thanks.

Glenn

We will soon have a new organic growout facility/farm and we are planning on installing a rather new invention called FLOW HIVES.

 

These are enclosed bee hives that have upwards of 15 supers inside of them.  The worker does not even need to put on safety gear in order to get the honey as there is a drainage pipe that pumps the honey out thru a spigot that you just turn one way to start the flow of honey - never needing to open the housing unit itself except for once a month to scrape off beeswax.

 

Our plan is to get the entire operation up and running by early Spring of next year and get SQF certified at some point in 2023.

 

I know there are some honey people on this forum and would like any feedback you have on this new invention called a flow hive?  Good or bad is great.

 

Thanks.

Glenn

Hi Glenn,

Bit OT - Never knew you could pump honey :smile:  Go Bees !

Hi Glenn, one challenge that Flow Hives pose is that it can be more difficult to monitor the health of the colony. I am unsure what the colony health requirements are in the US, but in Australia you have to be able to monitor for certain diseases and pests. We actually have a serious pest threat to our industry happening right now (varroa), and all hive owners in the area have been legally instructed to check their hives. Owners of flow hives are also included in this (if there are any).

I am not a beekeeper but my extended family are (and the Flow Hive was certainly a topic of conversation for a long time). They have not gone down the Flow Hive path and have stayed with traditional hives.