My opinion:
Your beekeeping teacher is an idiot.
Obtain a new teacher; one with an open mind.
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I am a complete newbie here. From the research that I had done and the reading on many web forumsâthe Flow Hive is like the Maserati of the Bee Hives. Some people just are stuck on the idea that hives should not change and they should be just like they have always been. The flow hive is expensive. There is Jealousy attached. There is the uneducated opinion of many-because they havenât learned about the flow hive.
I have even joined web forums and Facebook pages where the Admins specifically REFUSE to allow discussions about Flow Hives or questions about them for those that have purchased them.
Sadlyâsome would not answer my questions when I posted about the Flow Hive. Quickly I could see how people were against the New Idea.
I found excellent people willing to help me. Some willing to offer their time to provide Nucs and education. Amazing people.
The way I see itâI have learned more about Honey Bees and Hives because of my dedication to making this part of my life-do my best to have successful and striving hives, help the planet and also have honey. The honey being the last of whats most importantâthe BEES are the most important.
We are all in this togetherâmaking the honey bee survive. The type of hive doesnât matter.
Do your best and learnâignore the ignorant and strive to provide the best atmosphere for the bees.
Ken
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So now traditional beekeepers are jealous because the Flow Hive is expensive? And the Maserati of hives?
Now Iâve heard it all. Iâll show myself out.
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It could well be that some experienced beeks point out that money can buy you a flow hive, but not beekeeping knowledge. Fair enough.
I know some people bought one just to support the idea and now find out it takes some studying and support. Glad we have this forum.
Still waiting for SHB riddled flow hives to get offered for half price. Not happening yet. Guess people are pulling their socks up and learning or taking advice.
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Oh good to know. Things have gotten got a bit ofd. I havnât been able to follow the posts at all. Thank you.
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Im glad I could help hahah. Come onâyou know exactly what Im talking about. The Flow Hive is awesome but it is shunned in many circles of beekeeping.
It is a shame.
By the way your website is OUTSTANDING.
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So here is my bottom line on this subject;
I have NEVER heard any beekeeper criticize rudely, or berate, or refuse help or sell product, to a new beek with a conventional hive. Or claim dire results if they set up a hive and imagine they might be capable of learning to keep bees.
To a fault they are generous with their time, encouraging in their words and happy to provide guidance and information, to share their experience. Even when the newbeek is an idiot.
Add a deep of FlowFrames on top of a perfectly familiar and time tested Langstroth hive and it all gets questionable. And often negative, and occasionally downright nasty.
That old beek might think that the newbeek doesnât know what they are doing or how to go about beekeeping, or likely to succeed, but the difference between the first response and the last response is the FlowFrame.
To pretend otherwise is ignoring the reality of the situation. The good news is time will tell. My girls finally moved âupstairsâ into the Flows and I am totally psyched! Naysayers donât carry much weight with me ; -)
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Caterina, your words could be inspired by a counselor, a lawyer or a psyche nurse. Very rational in any case. Calming for the hotheads. Very cool.
My beekeeping Association / Club were skeptical about the FlowHive at first, they said to every beginner not to purchase it. When I did my course there were 3 people in my area who had a FlowHive.
Their skeptical was due to the crystallization of honey from OSR crop and though this would be a problem, this year will be the real test when the bees deposit their honey in the FlowHive.
However being skeptical they have open minded welcomed us to learn beekeeping, we all bought bees from one of the member who was willing to assist us. Heâs comment to me was donât give up even if the first year does not go well, He said some of the veteran beekeepers also loose bees. Which I thought was really encouraging to hear.
This year the club wrote to FlowHive asking for guidance and support as they knew little about how the hive functions, Stuart from FlowHive is coming to London and will be give a talk in May to our members and other clubs will be invited to the event to attend which I think is a big turn around for our Club.
I am grateful to be a member of my club and the support received from its members. 
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Good point my beekeeper would not sell me and up until it was in season to sell them I had to reserve one in October of the year before for the end of March for 2016⌠when installing a nucleus you do need to install it at the ideal season for bees not in the dead of winterâŚ
My very first class with my beekeeping Club the head asked question does anybody have any of those flow hive and I raise my hand knowing that I would likely get ridiculed but I stood my ground and since then this beekeeper had become a mentor and everything that heâs pointed out is a negative or things that Iâve already research and so I explain to him yes this can be a problem⌠he is very skeptical but he remains objective because he is the type of bee keeper that loves to learn new thingsâŚ
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I have NEVER seen or experienced this EVER. In fact every time I try and connect any kind of fact to claims that someone has been abused or treated poorly because they own or use a Flow hive, the story either changes, falls apart or it ends up being an issue with attitude or misinterpretation.
There is a lot of playing the victim, and not much acceptance that they are starting out and when someone disagrees or suggests an alternative that perhaps they are trying to help.
I am constantly in arguments (ie. robust discussion) with beekeepers and I rarely see eye to eye with anyone on all points. Itâs probably partly personality but itâs also the nature of the game. I dropped an early (very good) mentor because I didnât agree with some of his thoughts on hive management⌠but in hindsight realise that it was genuinely my loss as itâs not about following someone verbatim, itâs about pulling experiences from different sources and figuring out what works for you.
A good personal example is that I hate the 8 frame Langstroth with a passion, I donât hide this fact. About 70% of beekeepers I interact with regularly prefer and use 8 frame. That doesnât stop me trading thoughts/ideas/tips with them on other points, we just have different approaches and experiences. If someone gets stuck into me about what I use I am happy back it up with my reasoning and we agree to disagree.
If youâre looking for someone to agree with you wholesale about everything you do in beekeeping, youâre going to struggle.
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How lucky are you! What a treat to meet Stuart ; -)
Iâll have to watch to see if he is coming to California anytime!!
A year ago the conversation in my Dadâs club was âmeh. Sounds like an expensive new toy that will break/fail/kill the bees/end civilization as we know itâ
This winter they asked for a demo, so I put together a deal showing the flows and how they work and the whole shooting match and my Dad presented it.
âhummmmm. Interesting, how does it really work?â
I think it is a matter of experience and exposure. Some people âget itâ right away, others take a bit of time. And the joke that if your ask 3 beeks a question you will get 4 answers!
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I belong to the same beekeepers association as RBK and the majority of people involved have been accepting of the flow hive.
Of course there were concerns and questions regarding the flow process, but they wouldnât have been doing their job as responsible beekeepers if that didnât happen, and most of the members are now supportive of the flow hive concept.
There are some members who refuse to change their attitude and there isnât a lot that can be done about that. At an association meeting a few months back a flow frame was passed around the meeting for everyone to have a look at. The gentleman sitting in the chair in front of me, when it was being passed to him, loudly stated to not bother passing it to him, he refuses to even touch one of them.
Iâm not sure how you can have informed opinion on a subject when you refuse to even look at it, but there you go.
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âThe gentleman sitting in the chair in front of me, when it was being passed to him, loudly stated to not bother passing it to him, he refuses to even touch one of them.â
this is really quite funny. Classic. One thing I will say about our beekeeper society- the average age is maybe 65- going on 70? And it seems to me- that beekeepers tend to be- shall we say- on the more eccentric side of the ledger�
At our society there is a definitely an air of heavy skepticism about the flow frames. At my first meeting I saw a group of people sniggering about and mocking flow hive users they had met. Having said that- when Flow sent them a free beehive and set of frames- there was some degree of increased interest (clever move on Flowâs behalf). I believe that hive will soon be installed at the associations apiary- and it will give a lot of people a chance to see one in operation alongside standard langstroths.
another thing- at this years first meeting there were many, many new members- I think a large proportion of them are likely flow hive owners. Say what you will about flow- it has bought a lot of new people to beekeeping and surely they are not all âget honey rich quickly fly by nighter bee abusersâ.
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Not sure anyone said they are.
Itâs not a long bow to draw to suggest that a Flow owner put their money down before thoroughly understanding the basics of beekeeping. Where were all these Flow owners two years ago? the clubs were there⌠the modern Langstroth hive has been around for 100+ years⌠what is it about Flow that finally has them convinced they can be a beekeeper? the fact that extraction (one of the simplest processes of beekeeping) is now easier?
I think any beekeeper who genuinely did research up front would have purchased an 8 frame Langstroth hive, determined if beekeeping was for them over a season or two⌠and then progressed to the financial outlay of a Flow hive.
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No one said vast swathes of folks werenât enthused by the prospect of easier beekeeping and a new whizz bang beehive. And that is about THE number one ânegativeâ I have heard about the flow hive. Basically a variation on the âChristmas puppyâ syndrome. And certainly some of them will not end up long term beekeepers- but many will.
And no one was stopping the traditional langstothists from doing some kind of media stunt to get people interested in keeping bees. Also Flow didnât force the major media players to sing their campaign to the high heavens, nor for people all over the world to buy some 30,000 plus beehives. It just happened that way.
And finally- I think a flow hive is not the worst idea for a beginner. I started with a flow hive and now I have traditional hives also. I would recommend flow hives to dedicated beginners- and if they give up Iâd probably buy their hive off them too 
Traditional harvesting may be easy enough- but Flow is easier still.
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I think many people toyed with the idea of keeping bees, it was just too inaccessable. I have tried to talk to beeks/honey sellers on the local markets to get my beekeeping going and was told many times it takes a lot and itâs too hard for me. Along comes a fresh new idea with the plea to help the idea. If my experience is that of many people, I understand why the take up is so great.
I just wish the flow idea would have been available decades ago.
Flow or not, I never felt particularly welcomed by commercial beeks big or small before.
Since I have a flow hive, I felt quite welcomed at my first beginnerâs workshop with a commercial beek. NTBees. Things have changed, for the better I feel. For me anyway with the forum support here.
Recently I asked a honey seller on the market how he knows his honey was single source. That was out of genuine interest to find out how I could achieve that for myself, but I didnât mention it. He immediately was up in arms, thinking I wanted to challenge his single source and showed me some laminated paper, that I wasnât able to take with me. I thanked him with a smile and moved on.
What is going on here? I donât understand why those reactions even occur. It had nothing to do with flow, itâs the branch.
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Until the flow hive people started advertising I had no idea that people kept bees in their backyard. I thought the only beekeepers were professionals with lots of hives on lots of land.
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@RBK I toyed with the idea of keeping bees in my head for a couple of years but never made the commitment until the Flow Hive came along (and I moved to a place I could actually keep them).
I was welcomed by my local bee club but my choice of hive was met with semi-open minded skepticism by more than a few members. Theyâve since warmed to the Flow.
At the end of my very first meeting, I spoke with the guest speaker, a Master Beekeeper and an educational speaker and guest lecturer on apicultural topics for beekeeping organizations and community groups, not only across Georgia - but on a national and international level as well. He has lectured and presented workshops at the meetings of the Georgia Beekeepers Association, and Eastern Apicultural Society. The man even serves on the staff of the annual Young Harris â UGA Beekeeping Institute in Young Harris, Georgia.
This man has been sought out for comment on apicultural matters by media outlets such as the New York Times, Atlanta Journal & Constitution, Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Magazine and the British Broadcasting Company and even served the Georgia Beekeepers Association first as Secretary then as President.
He lambasted my choice, derided the product and labeled everyone that was getting into beekeeping because of the Flow Hive as idiots.
Iâve heard him lecture 2 additional times over the last year (and each time he derides the Flow Hive looking right at me). Iâve made it a point to post progress updates on my clubâs Facebook page and tagging him whenever the opportunity arises.
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