Frederick hello there. My pal who use to visit the UK informed me may a time that the USA in many instances was 10 years in front of the UK! He used to live Warminster and was a specialist motor engineer. he emigrated to the USA over 40 years ago . His uncle was already there so he had a good start. He said -in the USA a person if good at what they do is reimbursed for their skills which was not same in UK. He would have liked me to have gone with him but I am a stick in the mud so didn't go. He reckoned that I would have made a fortune out there. But hey ho I'm still here. I think he had quite a bit of land which here would have cost the earth. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the bees accept the plastic but you give me a lot of hope so long as I wait long enough before putting that unit on top. I am still in a quandary whether to put the excluder on or leave it off. Perhaps on for 'starters'? Best Wishes
I purchased these and they worked very well. Thanks for recommendation. They were very well worth the price. Like yourself, we did experience the flow frame leaking honey into the hive and we lost quite a few bees. They were flooded quite badly. For our next harvest, I'll be opening only a few cells at a time, allowing the honey a bit more time to escape and not back up. Your videos are very helpful, thank you Frederick for your hard work.
Flow hives are a true learning experience, but honestly, like yourself, I'm very much convinced the technology is efficient and certainly worth investing in.
The use of these jars to extract honey with the modified Flow-Tubes to form a 90 degree elbow that you introduced is a brilliant innovation and you are a genius to put this all together, to make life easier for the flow hive user. Extracting with these modified elbow tubes is the way to go. And the bees are undisturbed - and a Flow Hive must surely be less stressful for the bees. As you mentioned - you can extract the honey " with no uncapping, no filtering, no spinning" What you achieve instead is real beautiful pure honey extracted from a hive into your jar with a FlowHive while you go for a walk to view the local flowers or relax
@@FrederickDunn Rest assured Frederick, after doing it the "OLD" way the Flow hive is 150% better. At least there are no pulverised larvae in the honey.
I remember way back when these flow hives were on Kickstarter and thinking the idea was awesome an I really hoped it would work. So many of these kind of inventions are gimmicks that even if they work are not efficient or don't catch on. So nice to see that they've been working for him.
Another fantastic video sir. We will be ordering 1 or 2 flow supers this season, I'm using your videos as a guide. Thank you for making such great content.
Beautifully presented and extremely informative. Thank you very much for taking the time to create and post. We'll be harvesting our flow hive for the first time and we're quite excited. :)
@@FrederickDunn, I subscribed to you even if I don't have bees and couldn't because my son is extremely allergic because... your voice is very calming. :-) I would let your videos just go in the background while I'm working, reducing stress. Saves me lots of money instead of buying that hypnotist guy's relaxation cd's. Hah hah. But yeah, I ended up getting addicted to bee keeping so now I'm subscribed to 628DirtRooster and that guy with the Abbey. I don't think beekeeping is in my future because of my son and I sure don't want to give him an excuse not to visit his mother when he moves out of the house. I'm just so super fascinated by the whole process!
You are very welcome Alison, if Amazon ships to you, then you can probably get them. I included the link in the video description. I'm excited that someone in France is watching this :)
These videos have been extremely helpful! Thank you for them. It's one thing to read sources, but another to see it in action. My partner and I have been considering apiaries when we have a place for them, and he was fascinated with the Flow hives. (I also love that I've managed to find the beekeeping part of RUclips, from one 'Tuber i was already watching, and his foray into it...)
I actually wasn't expecting to get honey this year. This is my first year with a hive, and therefore the flow frame. The bees were still busy sealing all the cracks of the flow frame with propolis a couple weeks ago, and resources for honey production around here have dwindled, so I chose to remove the flow super as I didn't want that to be where any additional resources ended up, possibly leading to the queen moving in there over the winter, and starting to lay brood. This was a recommendation by another local beekeeper. Looking forward to getting honey from this hive next year, if they survive the winter.
@@FrederickDunn Also, I believe "Tygon" is rated food grade, but check that. Tygon is that clear flexible plastic tubing that is a form of vinyl. I would bend gently from your spout and down into the jar cap. Have you considered making a hive key or modifying a Flo key such that the flattened edges are removed from the rearward portion, thus being fully inserted only the rear half or so of the flo frame is opened. I think that method would still avoid flooding the hive and greatly reduce the drip time at the end of harvesting that frame.
@@rooster3019 Lots of materials can be sold as food grade, there is lots of tubing available that meets the FDA requirements. Lots of options. As for the key, I don't see a reason to modify it as they work fine and you can open as much or little of the flow-frame as you wish by the depth of insertion.
Great Lids - I just use a piece of clear food grade tubing that fits the flow tube ($.32 for 6") and bend into a hole in a Plastic Mason lid. Easy to clean and strong.
I would think making a shelf that hangs off the edge of the hive opening. That way no other shelf support would be necessary. Perhaps you can do a video on that.
Lovely video Frederick...... I'm just checking what is needed re the bends. In the UK a pvc bend is less than a £ but the shipping always getting dearer by the week is £6.. The clear pvc 90 deg bends are about £14 each plus the postage...... wow. It would not surprise me if yours in the USA are much cheaper. Do they all come from China I wonder? When I was working in Industrial Heating a lot of the cheapest gun metal fittings came from Italy. It baffles me why a clear bend costs so much dearer than a coloured one? I cannot imagine any contaminants will be leached out of the PVC in the time it takes to drain the as you say 1/2 gal of honey........ I think I'll be catching my honey into Pet one gallon bottles and then transfer into glass jars. Was your 90 deg bend made in the USA?
Any food-grade elbow will do. The clear elbows are used in food production systems so they can observe the flow. There are less exepensive options, but you'll find them associated with food processing systems.
I'm very interested but don't need the other lid types. Can you call them and only order those lids? And what size do I need for the 1/2 gallon jars? Thanks I'm a 1st year beek
Hey Frederick! First of all thank you for your videos. I am very intersted in starting a bee keeping project in my farm and i was planning to use flowhive for this project. Overall ive seen good reviews about it , but one critic that concerns me is that there is little space for bees to transit added to the plastic material makes them have alot of friction with the walls and thus shorten their lifespan and general hive health. I ask you about it because i know you are unbiased. Thanks again!
HI Juan! I'm not sure what your question is? If the concern is about the queen excluder which is plastic and placed beneath the flowsuper, those have been proven to wear out workers early, causing them to squeeze through those bars, in fact, some worker bees can't make it through queen excluders like those. If you're asking about bees somehow rubbing against the flow-frame mechanism itself? Meaning that the plastic cells are restrictive? I have witnessed no evidence of that at all, they go in and out of the honey cells apparently unimpeded. So, yes, that happens with queen excluders and no, it doesn't appear to be an issue with the flowframes themselves. THanks for watching and commenting! :)
Yes I was refering to the queen excluder, thanks for clearing that up for me. My other questions were: Do you recommend the flowhive for my project of a bee keeping sanctuary? Is it true that the honey from the flowhive is not naturally ripened by the hive because the cells are made from plastic and there is a natural process of ripening tha occurs while the honey is on the hive entirely made by bee's wax ? Thank you for your time.
Hi again Juan, If someone is telling you that honey from flowframes doesn't "ripen" due to plastics, it's probably time to stop listening to that individual. The dehydration process is the same, no matter what the honey is stored in... remember that there are keepers making chunk honey in plastic frames for later retail. This is also why I do a refractometer test of the honey at the end of each of my flowhive draws in order to remove that speculation. So, it's not the bees wax, it's the amount of time the honey remains in the cells while the bees dehydrate it which is often referred to as "ripening", when the bees cap the honey, it's at proper water percentages. I think the concern came in early because keepers were thinking the flowhive owners couldn't see, or wouldn't check to see that the cells were being capped prior to removing honey. Easy to test and be certain. IF the honey were too wet for one reason or another, you can still dehydrate the honey further in a controlled space with fans and dehumidifiers. I've never had to do that, but it's possible to save a harvest.
Yes, the flowhive 2 is the same as far as the tubes and flowframes go. All the same, it's the beehive itself that is altered with the new features. Everything else is the same.
Hi Frederick, looks like a no brainer. I just ordered some of those recap lids. As somebody else said , we do not have yellow jackets in Australia , but I do find that bees also will fly down into the jar and the wind can also be a problem . I just need to make some L shaped tubes now. Thanks for another great video. Regards Chas Greenway
Hi Chas, thanks so much and I'm glad you found this helpful. Those pour caps are growing on me also, aside from the collection process, they are convenient for pouring honey. You're very welcome!
Interesting to see someone that is happy with their flow-hive. I'm interested to see how your experience progresses, (if you will become a full convert, stay mixed or revert back to traditional extraction.) I do wonder how much is novelty and easy of inspection, (and how much of that "desire to look inside" will be sated with your new observation hive.)
I'm still using both traditional and the flowsupers. I "may" eventually have flowsupers for each of my colonies, but I also need the wax from time to time, so I'm keeping my options open. My wife definitely loves it when I take honey with the flowhives rather than uncapping and spinning, she ends up with the cleanup :)
Frederick I forgot to mention the OD of these Flow hive tubes are 25.5mm. Although the round plugs seem a fairly tight fit I think I should make stainless latches to cover the plugs. What a disaster it would be if any of the plugs popped out of their own accord!
@@FrederickDunn Hello Frederick You may call them bungs ( the small plastic (polypropylene male caps/inserts that push into the drain points. I note these could possibly pop out.( Murphy's law = if it can happen it will happen!) but maybe not? I may be worrying about something that may not happen. It could happen though because there is nothing holding the bungs in only friction. Yours may well be better than the Two I have so yours may well be better engineered re the fit of the plugs. Thank you for your help as always.
Looks like you could have 4 short elbows and 3 long elbows and do all 7 combs at once...as long as that doesn't disturb the hive somehow. Seems like a no-brainer for ReCap or Flow to sell as an accessory set.
I did a demonstration where using all flowframes at the same time is a very bad idea. Too much honey drips inside the hive for the bees to keep up with and they are driven out. I have a complete set of elbows now, but that's just so I can harvest from several different hives at once. I also agree that ReCap and Flow need to get together in the future! It's a near perfect marriage :)
How did you get the bees to go to the flow supers? My bees would not fill the flow frames. The filled the second brood box with honey, rather than use the flow frames. they barely even sniffed the flow frames. I tried smearing wax on the frames, I tried pouring some honey on the frames, and nothing! If you have any tricks to offer to get the bees to come up, I would so appreciate it, otherwise I am not sure I'll even use them again next year. Love your videos by the way.
Hi Deb, I didn't do any preparations to the flowframes at all. The bees just moved up into them after the lower boxes and frames were full. These are established colonies, it may take longer with new colonies of bees. Productivity has to be high for them to expand into the flowframes and above. They do use traditional frames first. Some bees take to them better than others and this is why I move the flowsupers onto my most productive colonies.
HI Tim, the Queen just went down below on her own and the bees cleaned the cells and just started putting honey in like nothing happened. In the end, no problem at all, but I will be taking all the flowsupers OFF for winter to prevent that from happening again.
Great video as always. I am thinking about getting a flow hive and a regular hive when I start beekeeping next year. Would two hives be too much for a first timer?
I'm no pro, BUT most pros have recommended that you DO start with at least 2 hives, so if one of em doesn't survive you aren't completely discouraged right off the bat and you can split your survivor hive to grow your hive back again.
Hi Trixie, I've been recommending that when people in my area are starting with honey bees that they just get the standard Langstroth hives when beginning. Two is definitely better than one so you have something to compare with regarding productivity and behavior. Then, once you know you enjoy keeping bees, maybe add the flowsuper to your most productive hive/colony. Some keepers in my area set up a flowhive and the bees have never managed to produce enough surplus to fill a flowsuper and they are a little frustrated by that. So, I suggest starting standard and yes, two or more colonies.
Thanks Fred, I think my biggest reason for a flowhive would be to sit and watch them without disturbing them all the time, but if I'm honest, I would be disappointed with no honey..lol. At any rate, just one more thing to study about until next year.
So I was thinking (I do that sometimes), that if you had a spring large enough to fit on the inside of the tubes, you could heat them up, and slowly bend them, eliminating the gluing with silicone, and making a stronger, easier to clean, and fail proof 90 degree angle.
I'm not at all against bending tubes, but they just aren't long enough to do that effectively and have the necessary play. I was told that ReCap Mason Jars will be coming out with a custom single piece elbow for this purpose and I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with :) Thanks for that suggestions though!
Hi Mr. Dunn, I literally stumbled upon your channel about an hour ago so I haven't gone through all of your videos yet; I don't have any apiaries but it's one of those "maybe one day when I have my own place and yard" projects. I was wondering, when you collect honey, you mention tipping the hive forward a few degrees (and not having to do it with the regular flow frame); what's the reason for this? Sorry if this is answered in another video of yours, I'm still going through all of them haha. A google search only came up with "to let condensation drain" but this sounded like more of a hive maintenance action as opposed to a honey-collection action. Thanks!
Hi Kingston, welcome to my channel! Ok, I actually tip the flowframe/hive back, not forward, and that's to facilitate the honey running towards the back of the hive where the tubes attach for extraction. The hive should remain tilted back after honey extraction in order to keep any dripping honey inside and not on the landing board which may get the attention of other bee colonies and kick off some competition for the honey. IF you own a complete flowhive system, there is a shim already built into the bottom board which keeps the bottom board flat, yet the upper hive is already tilted back towards the extraction plugs. You are correct in that normally you want your hive slightly tilted forward, towards the landing board and this helps shed rain water and melting snow etc so the bees have less to deal with inside. I hope that answers your question :)
You could have purchased clear plastic tubing from Home Depot for less than 3 dollars a yard. It's food grade too and it's flexible. Basic elbows used for water pipes are food grade too, and they are usually 50 cents.
Hi EH CBunny, there are lots of options out there and you are more than welcome to do your own setup, I'm just tossing ideas out there, I tend to overdo things a tad, sorry.
why not just use a standard 3/4" pvc elbow ? the elbow does not need to be clear. they are cheap, and they are good enough to supply drinking water to your home so they should be fine for honey.
They are definitely a lot of fun to work with, we still do the traditional extraction also, but I have to say it's far more convenient with the flow-frames :)
Flow hives are getting expensive. Like iPhones they will probably be $1000 soon. When you add up the investment in hives and bees is it worth it as an aviary that sells honey for a living? Or is it a hobby where you can sell some honey to replenish some of your expenses?
I think it's primarily for hobbiests who don't mind the cost. Although, there is a commercial apiary that has Flow-Hives exclusively and they market their honey at a higher price point as "unfiltered, direct from the hive to jar" and that seems to be working for them. Each flow hive generally takes almost two years for production to match the investment. So, say 10 Flow Hive 2 units $8,000.00... that buys a lot of Langstroth Hives and a larger apiary for those wanting to have a honey parlor and do larger scale extraction processes along with wax rendering and so on.
Also, the more flexible tubing contains a lot more chemicals to make them that way. Phthalates and other plasticizers are hormone disruptors that contaminate foods and can cause major health problems, even cancer with repeated exposure. Even "food grade" plastics aren't 100% free of those chemicals, but they contain magnitudes less and of a less toxic nature.
That is seriously terrible. There are food-system companies that also sell them, but it seems that anything produced as part of a food-processing system gets high price. You can just cover the ends with saran wrap or something like that. I would not pay $36 for that.
Thanks, I already drafted up a series of technical drawings and have given them to the ReCap Mason Jar people, I'm sure they will patent parts that are patent worthy :)
Frederick Dunn I'll be fine mostly i just have to watch out for carpenter bees. the ones in my area are a bit defensive. The other bees in the area couldn't care less but carpenter bees will chase you if you get too close to them
i too am scared of bees, all creepy crawlies anything with more than 4 legs. i want to start beekeeping (probably with full gear on) back home but i work overseas. my home country Philippines is tropical and in the mountains. i wish my mom can start a beehive.
seems like major overthinking about a small problem. you could use some mosquito netting or screen from an old screen door to just surround the jars/hive valves, then you could use whatever jars/containers you wanted. if the wind was a problem as a commenter here said, you could build a wood or glass/plexiglass/acrylic box (or just repurpose some old windows) to surround the jars, and again you could use whatever containers you want. lots of options other than buying specialty single-purpose products
HI Junkdna83, I'm not sure about overthinking, I'm just sharing my methods and the things I find that make my process easier. There are many solutions that I'm sure others like yourself will come up with. Here where I live, Ball Canning Jars are standard and widely available, I was excited to find jar lids that not only fit those wide-mouth and standard jars, but that just happened to have a hole that perfectly matched the flow-tubes. I hope you make videos showing your method, I'll be happy to check it out. These are working great for me.
u should contact the ppl in australia sell them the patent and become a squi;llionaire - i suppose in australia we dont have that prob with yellow jackets maybe flies
You're so lucky not to have them there. Whatever you do, DO NOT import yellow jackets. They're THE WORST! The US had a terrible bloom of yellow jackets this year across the entire country. We have a postage stamp yard and had TWO nests develop there this summer. While you can swat them away from your food on a picnic without worrying too much about getting stung, if you're anywhere near their actual nest they will ATTACK and sting aggressively! We tried just leaving them alone and avoiding them while tending our veg garden and compost bin (one nest was directly under the compost bin), but we got stung 5 times before deciding we'd had enough. One even nailed me right through a thick pair of Carhartt jeans, even though I was over ten feet away from the nest! So I dressed up from head to toe in thick fleece (it was 90 degrees out...ugg!) and a full face respirator with the edges of my fleece balaclava up to its edges, and literally dug those nests out and destroyed them once and for all! They swarmed all over me stinging fiercely over and over again, but thankfully couldn't get to me through the fleece. Thankfully the nests weren't any bigger than a football (a US football that is). I've seen huge nests that attack anything that come within 25 feet of them. Nests that large can easily be deadly to any unsuspecting animal or human that stumbles upon them unaware. Their stings aren't like bee stings either, which aren't that bad and clear up in a day or two. They burn like hell for three days, welting up to the size of a dinner plate, and then itch mercilessly for over a week before they finally start to resolve. AND, their stingers don't pull out of their body after they sting like a honey bee's. Yellow jackets can sting you over and over and over again in a go (though the venom sack depletes eventually), as well as actually bite you with their powerful mandibles which unlike a honey bee's are designed to cut off pieces of flesh! I was harvesting our Asian pears (which they love and burrow into to eat) and didn't realize there was a yellow jacket working on the one I was picking. Thankfully it didn't sting me, but bit me hard instead actually drawing blood! But I'd rather be bitten by one than stung, as once the pain of the bite subsided it was all over...no welting, burning or itching with just a bite. They're horrible!
Frederick hello there. My pal who use to visit the UK informed me may a time that the USA in many instances was 10 years in front of the UK! He used to live Warminster and was a specialist motor engineer. he emigrated to the USA over 40 years ago . His uncle was already there so he had a good start. He said -in the USA a person if good at what they do is reimbursed for their skills which was not same in UK.
He would have liked me to have gone with him but I am a stick in the mud so didn't go. He reckoned that I would have made a fortune out there. But hey ho I'm still here. I think he had quite a bit of land which here would have cost the earth.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed the bees accept the plastic but you give me a lot of hope so long as I wait long enough before putting that unit on top. I am still in a quandary whether to put the excluder on or leave it off. Perhaps on for 'starters'?
Best Wishes
I purchased these and they worked very well. Thanks for recommendation. They were very well worth the price.
Like yourself, we did experience the flow frame leaking honey into the hive and we lost quite a few bees. They were flooded quite badly.
For our next harvest, I'll be opening only a few cells at a time, allowing the honey a bit more time to escape and not back up.
Your videos are very helpful, thank you Frederick for your hard work.
Thank you so much for your comment and I'm sorry you had a bad first flow-experience, BUT glad my videos are helping :)
Flow hives are a true learning experience, but honestly, like yourself, I'm very much convinced the technology is efficient and certainly worth investing in.
agreed!
It won't happen the second time around. I've seen it in another video. The bees will fix it so that it doesn't happen again.
The use of these jars to extract honey with the modified Flow-Tubes to form a 90 degree elbow that you introduced is a brilliant innovation and you are a genius to put this all together, to make life easier for the flow hive user. Extracting with these modified elbow tubes is the way to go. And the bees are undisturbed - and a Flow Hive must surely be less stressful for the bees. As you mentioned - you can extract the honey " with no uncapping, no filtering, no spinning" What you achieve instead is real beautiful pure honey extracted from a hive into your jar with a FlowHive while you go for a walk to view the local flowers or relax
Thank you! :) I wish every viewer had your understanding.
@@FrederickDunn Rest assured Frederick, after doing it the "OLD" way the Flow hive is 150% better. At least there are no pulverised larvae in the honey.
What a great idea. Thanks for sharing
You should tell the Flow Hive people, I sure they would like & recommend to use those jars and lids.
Thanks! But I did share it with them and I think they plan to make their own.
I don’t even keep bees but I can watch videos on honey production all day long.
I remember way back when these flow hives were on Kickstarter and thinking the idea was awesome an I really hoped it would work. So many of these kind of inventions are gimmicks that even if they work are not efficient or don't catch on.
So nice to see that they've been working for him.
You're not alone, many beekeepers still can't even let the words cross their mouths.... but it works :)
I really enjoy your videos because I learn so much. This one was especially good for working smarter, not harder. Cheers!
Thank you as always LWM :)
Definitely film and post all of your collections from the flohives because it never gets old.
Thank you Dean, I definitely have some new flow-related stuff coming up in March!
Love your videos! Taking my first beekeeping class March 14th. SOOO EXCITED!!!
Hi Fred. Thought this one would be worth visiting again, as it is hard (in the UK) to find the necessary plumbing parts
A very good idea and nice video with great explanation
Thank you !
Thank you so much, there's no way I would have stumbled across ReCap
You're welcome Gregory, I was amazed myself, they are made right in the county where I live :)
Another fantastic video sir. We will be ordering 1 or 2 flow supers this season, I'm using your videos as a guide. Thank you for making such great content.
You are very welcome, thanks for taking the time to comment!
That's awesome that you are planting flowering plants to support the bee's.
Thank you Richard!
I really enjoy the flow hive video's
Thank you Andrew!
Beautifully presented and extremely informative. Thank you very much for taking the time to create and post. We'll be harvesting our flow hive for the first time and we're quite excited. :)
Hi SquirrelsForAll, thanks so much, I hope your extraction goes perfectly!
King of the quiet talkers.
Is that good or bad? :)
GOOD
@@FrederickDunn, I subscribed to you even if I don't have bees and couldn't because my son is extremely allergic because... your voice is very calming. :-) I would let your videos just go in the background while I'm working, reducing stress. Saves me lots of money instead of buying that hypnotist guy's relaxation cd's. Hah hah. But yeah, I ended up getting addicted to bee keeping so now I'm subscribed to 628DirtRooster and that guy with the Abbey. I don't think beekeeping is in my future because of my son and I sure don't want to give him an excuse not to visit his mother when he moves out of the house. I'm just so super fascinated by the whole process!
@@FrederickDunn P.S. Do you sell your Flow Hive honey?
@@anatess07 Thanks for asking Anatess, I'm sorry to say I don't. My wife does and she has a long waiting list.
Thank you for the Recap Mason jar idea, I will see if they are sold in France.
You are very welcome Alison, if Amazon ships to you, then you can probably get them. I included the link in the video description. I'm excited that someone in France is watching this :)
These videos have been extremely helpful! Thank you for them. It's one thing to read sources, but another to see it in action. My partner and I have been considering apiaries when we have a place for them, and he was fascinated with the Flow hives. (I also love that I've managed to find the beekeeping part of RUclips, from one 'Tuber i was already watching, and his foray into it...)
Thank you so much, I'm glad my videos are helping with your honey bee and flowhive studies :)
Brilliant! We have a Flow Hive but our new colony needs to get better established before they make us honey. I'll be ready with this next year!
Hi Marjie, I hope next year brings more success with your hive! :)
Another great video. I'm going to have to look into those lids for next year. No honey from the Flow super this year.
Ohhhh that's too bad Martain, I hope you have a better year next year and those lids are really tough, I was impressed :)
I actually wasn't expecting to get honey this year. This is my first year with a hive, and therefore the flow frame. The bees were still busy sealing all the cracks of the flow frame with propolis a couple weeks ago, and resources for honey production around here have dwindled, so I chose to remove the flow super as I didn't want that to be where any additional resources ended up, possibly leading to the queen moving in there over the winter, and starting to lay brood. This was a recommendation by another local beekeeper. Looking forward to getting honey from this hive next year, if they survive the winter.
I hope you have a good winter with your bees and that next year brings greater honey production for you and your bees :)
Is there any possibility that an ell for potable water pipe would NOT be food grade? Very nice video, thanks!
Yes, that's possible. Food-Grade in this instance is a material that is approved for food processing - copper for example, would not be approved.
@@FrederickDunn Also, I believe "Tygon" is rated food grade, but check that. Tygon is that clear flexible plastic tubing that is a form of vinyl. I would bend gently from your spout and down into the jar cap. Have you considered making a hive key or modifying a Flo key such that the flattened edges are removed from the rearward portion, thus being fully inserted only the rear half or so of the flo frame is opened. I think that method would still avoid flooding the hive and greatly reduce the drip time at the end of harvesting that frame.
@@rooster3019 Lots of materials can be sold as food grade, there is lots of tubing available that meets the FDA requirements. Lots of options. As for the key, I don't see a reason to modify it as they work fine and you can open as much or little of the flow-frame as you wish by the depth of insertion.
@@FrederickDunn I guess you are right. No reason to get in a hurry.
Could you just use some silicon tubing for the bend and extra length? Assuming the size is available and it's food safe.
Great Lids - I just use a piece of clear food grade tubing that fits the flow tube ($.32 for 6") and bend into a hole in a Plastic Mason lid. Easy to clean and strong.
There are endless configurations, thanks for the suggestion.
I would think making a shelf that hangs off the edge of the hive opening. That way no other shelf support would be necessary. Perhaps you can do a video on that.
That's a good idea, but I'm pretty content with my current setup. But anything is possible, maybe someday. Thanks for commenting!
So you don't put the hive at an angle to encourage honey flow completley ?
Yes, flowhives get angled 2 degrees to the back for harvesting.
Lovely video Frederick...... I'm just checking what is needed re the bends. In the UK a pvc bend is less than a £ but the shipping always getting dearer by the week is £6.. The clear pvc 90 deg bends are about £14 each plus the postage...... wow. It would not surprise me if yours in the USA are much cheaper. Do they all come from China I wonder?
When I was working in Industrial Heating a lot of the cheapest gun metal fittings came from Italy.
It baffles me why a clear bend costs so much dearer than a coloured one? I cannot imagine any contaminants will be leached out of the PVC in the time it takes to drain the as you say 1/2 gal of honey........ I think I'll be catching my honey into Pet one gallon bottles and then transfer into glass jars.
Was your 90 deg bend made in the USA?
Any food-grade elbow will do. The clear elbows are used in food production systems so they can observe the flow. There are less exepensive options, but you'll find them associated with food processing systems.
I'm very interested but don't need the other lid types. Can you call them and only order those lids? And what size do I need for the 1/2 gallon jars? Thanks I'm a 1st year beek
The website is masonjars.com/ If you aren't sure about the jar size, here's a guide: masonjars.com/find-your-jar-size/
Such a sweet voice mr Dunn
Thank you Billie!
Little Depressing .only good for Psychotherapy
Frederick what did you cut the tubes with?
miter saw.
@@FrederickDunn a hand one or electric? I envision it splintering into a mess lol
Really great video! Keep them coming!
Thank you Linus!
Hey Frederick! First of all thank you for your videos. I am very intersted in starting a bee keeping project in my farm and i was planning to use flowhive for this project. Overall ive seen good reviews about it , but one critic that concerns me is that there is little space for bees to transit added to the plastic material makes them have alot of friction with the walls and thus shorten their lifespan and general hive health. I ask you about it because i know you are unbiased. Thanks again!
HI Juan! I'm not sure what your question is? If the concern is about the queen excluder which is plastic and placed beneath the flowsuper, those have been proven to wear out workers early, causing them to squeeze through those bars, in fact, some worker bees can't make it through queen excluders like those. If you're asking about bees somehow rubbing against the flow-frame mechanism itself? Meaning that the plastic cells are restrictive? I have witnessed no evidence of that at all, they go in and out of the honey cells apparently unimpeded. So, yes, that happens with queen excluders and no, it doesn't appear to be an issue with the flowframes themselves. THanks for watching and commenting! :)
Yes I was refering to the queen excluder, thanks for clearing that up for me. My other questions were: Do you recommend the flowhive for my project of a bee keeping sanctuary? Is it true that the honey from the flowhive is not naturally ripened by the hive because the cells are made from plastic and there is a natural process of ripening tha occurs while the honey is on the hive entirely made by bee's wax ? Thank you for your time.
Hi again Juan, If someone is telling you that honey from flowframes doesn't "ripen" due to plastics, it's probably time to stop listening to that individual. The dehydration process is the same, no matter what the honey is stored in... remember that there are keepers making chunk honey in plastic frames for later retail. This is also why I do a refractometer test of the honey at the end of each of my flowhive draws in order to remove that speculation. So, it's not the bees wax, it's the amount of time the honey remains in the cells while the bees dehydrate it which is often referred to as "ripening", when the bees cap the honey, it's at proper water percentages. I think the concern came in early because keepers were thinking the flowhive owners couldn't see, or wouldn't check to see that the cells were being capped prior to removing honey. Easy to test and be certain. IF the honey were too wet for one reason or another, you can still dehydrate the honey further in a controlled space with fans and dehumidifiers. I've never had to do that, but it's possible to save a harvest.
Thanks for all the feedback Frederick, Have a good night.
You're welcome!
Thanks for the video. Did you use silicone sealer to glue the food-processing 90° elbow to the flow-tubes?
Yes.
do you think the FH2 will be compatible with this better with shelf?
Yes, the flowhive 2 is the same as far as the tubes and flowframes go. All the same, it's the beehive itself that is altered with the new features. Everything else is the same.
Hi Frederick, looks like a no brainer. I just ordered some of those recap lids.
As somebody else said , we do not have yellow jackets in Australia , but I do find
that bees also will fly down into the jar and the wind can also be a problem . I just need to
make some L shaped tubes now. Thanks for another great video.
Regards Chas Greenway
Hi Chas, thanks so much and I'm glad you found this helpful. Those pour caps are growing on me also, aside from the collection process, they are convenient for pouring honey. You're very welcome!
Can you send the link from Amazon to buy that silicone elbow please. I can’t find it on Amazon.
It's in the video description, but I have to say that the price on those has doubled and I'm not sure it's worth the price. amzn.to/3xhZgQt
Why not some plastic tubing and mason jar lid rings with a plastic cap insert with a hole cut in it?
That's a possibility, if someone makes that revision, it would probably sell.
Interesting to see someone that is happy with their flow-hive. I'm interested to see how your experience progresses, (if you will become a full convert, stay mixed or revert back to traditional extraction.) I do wonder how much is novelty and easy of inspection, (and how much of that "desire to look inside" will be sated with your new observation hive.)
I'm still using both traditional and the flowsupers. I "may" eventually have flowsupers for each of my colonies, but I also need the wax from time to time, so I'm keeping my options open. My wife definitely loves it when I take honey with the flowhives rather than uncapping and spinning, she ends up with the cleanup :)
Frederick I forgot to mention the OD of these Flow hive tubes are 25.5mm. Although the round plugs seem a fairly tight fit I think I should make stainless latches to cover the plugs. What a disaster it would be if any of the plugs popped out of their own accord!
I'm not sure what you mean by using plugs?
@@FrederickDunn Hello Frederick You may call them bungs ( the small plastic (polypropylene male caps/inserts that push into the drain points. I note these could possibly pop out.( Murphy's law = if it can happen it will happen!) but maybe not? I may be worrying about something that may not happen. It could happen though because there is nothing holding the bungs in only friction. Yours may well be better than the Two I have so yours may well be better engineered re the fit of the plugs. Thank you for your help as always.
Can you immediately that captured honey on your bread?
You can use the honey right away for anything you wish. It's as good as it's ever going to be :)
Looks like you could have 4 short elbows and 3 long elbows and do all 7 combs at once...as long as that doesn't disturb the hive somehow. Seems like a no-brainer for ReCap or Flow to sell as an accessory set.
I did a demonstration where using all flowframes at the same time is a very bad idea. Too much honey drips inside the hive for the bees to keep up with and they are driven out. I have a complete set of elbows now, but that's just so I can harvest from several different hives at once. I also agree that ReCap and Flow need to get together in the future! It's a near perfect marriage :)
WHAT ABOUT CLEAR PLASTIC tubing for the extraction? My Bunnings sells the 3/4 inch tubing that is food safe
As long as it's food grade, there are lots of options. The 90 degree elbows allow me to keep the honey shelf right next to the box.
How did you get the bees to go to the flow supers? My bees would not fill the flow frames. The filled the second brood box with honey, rather than use the flow frames. they barely even sniffed the flow frames. I tried smearing wax on the frames, I tried pouring some honey on the frames, and nothing! If you have any tricks to offer to get the bees to come up, I would so appreciate it, otherwise I am not sure I'll even use them again next year. Love your videos by the way.
Hi Deb, I didn't do any preparations to the flowframes at all. The bees just moved up into them after the lower boxes and frames were full. These are established colonies, it may take longer with new colonies of bees. Productivity has to be high for them to expand into the flowframes and above. They do use traditional frames first. Some bees take to them better than others and this is why I move the flowsupers onto my most productive colonies.
That makes sense has these were new hives. I'll try again next year. Hopefully I'll have better luck. Thanks.
You're welcome Deb, I wish you all the best with your bees.
great video
Thank you Rob!
is that the same super that the queen got into a while back? and if it is, how did you reclaim your expensive brood box?
HI Tim, the Queen just went down below on her own and the bees cleaned the cells and just started putting honey in like nothing happened. In the end, no problem at all, but I will be taking all the flowsupers OFF for winter to prevent that from happening again.
very cool ! okay, how did you cut the plastic?
I cut the plastic on my table saw with a fine tooth blade.
Nice. I also leave my jars collecting honey for up to 3 hours. This way there’s no over flow into hive.
It certainly doesn't hurt to leave them that long :)
Great video as always. I am thinking about getting a flow hive and a regular hive when I start beekeeping next year. Would two hives be too much for a first timer?
I'm no pro, BUT most pros have recommended that you DO start with at least 2 hives, so if one of em doesn't survive you aren't completely discouraged right off the bat and you can split your survivor hive to grow your hive back again.
That does make sense. Thanks Tim!
Hi Trixie, I've been recommending that when people in my area are starting with honey bees that they just get the standard Langstroth hives when beginning. Two is definitely better than one so you have something to compare with regarding productivity and behavior. Then, once you know you enjoy keeping bees, maybe add the flowsuper to your most productive hive/colony. Some keepers in my area set up a flowhive and the bees have never managed to produce enough surplus to fill a flowsuper and they are a little frustrated by that. So, I suggest starting standard and yes, two or more colonies.
Thanks Fred, I think my biggest reason for a flowhive would be to sit and watch them without disturbing them all the time, but if I'm honest, I would be disappointed with no honey..lol. At any rate, just one more thing to study about until next year.
You can heat the 2 45° flow tubes and melt them together.
interesting!
So I was thinking (I do that sometimes), that if you had a spring large enough to fit on the inside of the tubes, you could heat them up, and slowly bend them, eliminating the gluing with silicone, and making a stronger, easier to clean, and fail proof 90 degree angle.
I'm not at all against bending tubes, but they just aren't long enough to do that effectively and have the necessary play. I was told that ReCap Mason Jars will be coming out with a custom single piece elbow for this purpose and I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with :) Thanks for that suggestions though!
Thank you.
You're welcome!
Hi Mr. Dunn, I literally stumbled upon your channel about an hour ago so I haven't gone through all of your videos yet; I don't have any apiaries but it's one of those "maybe one day when I have my own place and yard" projects. I was wondering, when you collect honey, you mention tipping the hive forward a few degrees (and not having to do it with the regular flow frame); what's the reason for this? Sorry if this is answered in another video of yours, I'm still going through all of them haha. A google search only came up with "to let condensation drain" but this sounded like more of a hive maintenance action as opposed to a honey-collection action. Thanks!
Hi Kingston, welcome to my channel! Ok, I actually tip the flowframe/hive back, not forward, and that's to facilitate the honey running towards the back of the hive where the tubes attach for extraction. The hive should remain tilted back after honey extraction in order to keep any dripping honey inside and not on the landing board which may get the attention of other bee colonies and kick off some competition for the honey. IF you own a complete flowhive system, there is a shim already built into the bottom board which keeps the bottom board flat, yet the upper hive is already tilted back towards the extraction plugs. You are correct in that normally you want your hive slightly tilted forward, towards the landing board and this helps shed rain water and melting snow etc so the bees have less to deal with inside. I hope that answers your question :)
That makes a lot of sense, thanks for the quick reply!
You could have purchased clear plastic tubing from Home Depot for less than 3 dollars a yard. It's food grade too and it's flexible. Basic elbows used for water pipes are food grade too, and they are usually 50 cents.
Hi EH CBunny, there are lots of options out there and you are more than welcome to do your own setup, I'm just tossing ideas out there, I tend to overdo things a tad, sorry.
Very informative, thank you!
You're welcome and thanks for watching!
why not just use a standard 3/4" pvc elbow ? the elbow does not need to be clear. they are cheap, and they are good enough to supply drinking water to your home so they should be fine for honey.
You are welcome to use anything you like.
Man do I wish I had these back in the days when I had bees.
They are definitely a lot of fun to work with, we still do the traditional extraction also, but I have to say it's far more convenient with the flow-frames :)
One day I hope have bees with a flow hive! Until then I subscribed
THanks and welcome to my channel
Flow hives are getting expensive. Like iPhones they will probably be $1000 soon. When you add up the investment in hives and bees is it worth it as an aviary that sells honey for a living? Or is it a hobby where you can sell some honey to replenish some of your expenses?
I think it's primarily for hobbiests who don't mind the cost. Although, there is a commercial apiary that has Flow-Hives exclusively and they market their honey at a higher price point as "unfiltered, direct from the hive to jar" and that seems to be working for them. Each flow hive generally takes almost two years for production to match the investment. So, say 10 Flow Hive 2 units $8,000.00... that buys a lot of Langstroth Hives and a larger apiary for those wanting to have a honey parlor and do larger scale extraction processes along with wax rendering and so on.
LOVE IT!
Thanks!
Still curing my insomnia. More videos please. Thank you. They are very interesting too of course.
I'll try :) Want a video of just fall leaves and music? :)
Just another thought maybe u could use good grade hose or tubing u can by at several diy stores? Just heat to bend 😉😁👍🐝🐝🐝🐝🍯🍯🍯
I could also get it for u by the ft. 😁
That's a great Idea but I'm not a fan of the flexible tubing :) These are compact and easy to clean and store...
Also, the more flexible tubing contains a lot more chemicals to make them that way. Phthalates and other plasticizers are hormone disruptors that contaminate foods and can cause major health problems, even cancer with repeated exposure. Even "food grade" plastics aren't 100% free of those chemicals, but they contain magnitudes less and of a less toxic nature.
Neat!
Wow those elbows are now $36.28 on Amazon
That is seriously terrible. There are food-system companies that also sell them, but it seems that anything produced as part of a food-processing system gets high price. You can just cover the ends with saran wrap or something like that. I would not pay $36 for that.
@@FrederickDunn agreed! I’d never spend that kind of money on it. I just thought wow from $11 to $36 dang
Very nice video I don't have hives but u sure make me want 2! 😁🐝🐝🐝🍯🍯🍯
Thanks.
when you said the sun is high i pictured it smoking pot
Good idea. now go get a patent before some one else does. It is your idea after all.
Thanks, I already drafted up a series of technical drawings and have given them to the ReCap Mason Jar people, I'm sure they will patent parts that are patent worthy :)
👍✳️👍✳️👍✳️
I love honey but too scared of bees.
Ohhh that's too bad Adam! Maybe you have some friends who would get the honey for you :)
Same only im allergic to bee venom im super paranoid in the summer about bees.
I'm sorry to know you're allergic and stressed over bees in summer :( stay safe DBZ1FAN1GIRL
Frederick Dunn I'll be fine mostly i just have to watch out for carpenter bees. the ones in my area are a bit defensive. The other bees in the area couldn't care less but carpenter bees will chase you if you get too close to them
i too am scared of bees, all creepy crawlies anything with more than 4 legs. i want to start beekeeping (probably with full gear on) back home but i work overseas. my home country Philippines is tropical and in the mountains. i wish my mom can start a beehive.
bob ross ??
Bob was awesome and it's nice to be compared!
I was about to say the same thing!!!! How about a happy little bee there, that's it, perfect!!!
look at them tasty gold yum yum
seems like major overthinking about a small problem. you could use some mosquito netting or screen from an old screen door to just surround the jars/hive valves, then you could use whatever jars/containers you wanted. if the wind was a problem as a commenter here said, you could build a wood or glass/plexiglass/acrylic box (or just repurpose some old windows) to surround the jars, and again you could use whatever containers you want. lots of options other than buying specialty single-purpose products
HI Junkdna83, I'm not sure about overthinking, I'm just sharing my methods and the things I find that make my process easier. There are many solutions that I'm sure others like yourself will come up with. Here where I live, Ball Canning Jars are standard and widely available, I was excited to find jar lids that not only fit those wide-mouth and standard jars, but that just happened to have a hole that perfectly matched the flow-tubes. I hope you make videos showing your method, I'll be happy to check it out. These are working great for me.
u should contact the ppl in australia sell them the patent and become a squi;llionaire - i suppose in australia we dont have that prob with yellow jackets maybe flies
The ReCap lids are already patented and the elbows are just "found objects" for the most part :) thanks Missy!
You're so lucky not to have them there. Whatever you do, DO NOT import yellow jackets. They're THE WORST! The US had a terrible bloom of yellow jackets this year across the entire country. We have a postage stamp yard and had TWO nests develop there this summer. While you can swat them away from your food on a picnic without worrying too much about getting stung, if you're anywhere near their actual nest they will ATTACK and sting aggressively!
We tried just leaving them alone and avoiding them while tending our veg garden and compost bin (one nest was directly under the compost bin), but we got stung 5 times before deciding we'd had enough. One even nailed me right through a thick pair of Carhartt jeans, even though I was over ten feet away from the nest! So I dressed up from head to toe in thick fleece (it was 90 degrees out...ugg!) and a full face respirator with the edges of my fleece balaclava up to its edges, and literally dug those nests out and destroyed them once and for all! They swarmed all over me stinging fiercely over and over again, but thankfully couldn't get to me through the fleece. Thankfully the nests weren't any bigger than a football (a US football that is). I've seen huge nests that attack anything that come within 25 feet of them. Nests that large can easily be deadly to any unsuspecting animal or human that stumbles upon them unaware.
Their stings aren't like bee stings either, which aren't that bad and clear up in a day or two. They burn like hell for three days, welting up to the size of a dinner plate, and then itch mercilessly for over a week before they finally start to resolve. AND, their stingers don't pull out of their body after they sting like a honey bee's. Yellow jackets can sting you over and over and over again in a go (though the venom sack depletes eventually), as well as actually bite you with their powerful mandibles which unlike a honey bee's are designed to cut off pieces of flesh! I was harvesting our Asian pears (which they love and burrow into to eat) and didn't realize there was a yellow jacket working on the one I was picking. Thankfully it didn't sting me, but bit me hard instead actually drawing blood! But I'd rather be bitten by one than stung, as once the pain of the bite subsided it was all over...no welting, burning or itching with just a bite. They're horrible!