How to lock up your bee hive?

With harvesting honey made so simple with the FlowHive, I’m worried that thieves will simply open my hive and drain the honey while I’m not around.

Is there any way to lock or secure the Flow Hive so that the access area to the frames and drains can’t be tampered with?

I’d love to hear if anyone has any FlowHive security or lock ideas, modifications, or solutions to this potential problem?

Thanks in advance!

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I’ll be installing tracking devices to my hives (thanks to other Indiegogo campaigns!).
If my hives or frames take flight they will be located pretty quick!

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I had put some thought into when considering putting a hive into a community garden last year, turns out they were scared of bees so this venture was a complete failure. The plan was to bolt the bottom board to a pallet (pallets are heavy so you would need a forklift or a couple burly blokes) then each hive box would be locked using hive fasteners. Sound simple cause it is. A complete hive and pallet could be 80 kilos which is still stealable but not easy. As for Flow frames, the would be thief needs the keys so no honey for them unless they own a Flow hive. You can always put a simple lock on the cutouts that allow access to the Flow frames.
These can be lockable with a small modification.
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/togglefastener.html

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Now that sounds interesting. What is the name of the device?

There’s two tracking devices I’ll be trialing (both from Indiegogo) neither have been delivered to me yet, but hopefully by the time the FlowHive is delivered:
TinTag
TrackR bravo
Hopefully they work nicely.

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Would be great to get a review from you on how effective they are. If you need someone to volunteer to steal your hives, just give me a shout… :smile:

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Good idea @Rodderick, I’ll do a review some time in the future… stay tuned…

Maybe I’ll take you up on that sticky stealing offer someday, so long as we can video it for Funniest Home Videos!

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Interesting thread. I would supplement your tracking device idea with a wireless camera in a tree in an inconspicuous location. I’ve also seen folks chain link an enclosure around the hives (usually done to keep bears out). You could do that and put a chain link top on it as well.

Let’s face it, If a thief wants to steal something, they will find a way, but they usually want to make it fast, so anything to slow them down is considered a deterrent.

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Locking it up can be easier than that.

  1. there are game cameras now that if they snap a photo by detecting movement of a large animal. or person it sends to your phone and notifies you as a text message or email would come in. Some models work off of 4g cellular others are gps.
  2. securing you can use cut proof locks to hold the layers together as they can be removed but the behive will more than likely brake first and to secure the hive itself. and age old method. dig a hole under the hive 3Ft deep 1meter give or take. Drop a concrete block with heavy chain or high resistance cable and attach it to the frame and bury and pack it. its called a land anchor
    Seriously no one walks away with that.
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Hi @bat208
Great ideas!

  1. is useful for capturing images of the thief, and if you are close by when the alert comes in you could attend and call the police. In my experience though, the thief often gets away before the cavalry arrive and then identifying the thief is not always so easy. I’d rather have the video than not though!

2 ideal if hives are to be left in the same location! It would be fun to watch the security video of someone trying to take off with it! But not so ideal if the hives are to be relocated, means more digging etc. Lots of merit in this idea for the small scale beekeeper.

As with any type of property theft, any deterrent is better than nothing. There’s always going to be the baddie who will try anything, but there’s lots more who won’t even try to steal if there’s even just the basic level of security in place, they will look for easier targets instead. Most of us lock our car and homes, knowing that a determined thief can still get in if they really wanted to. There’s probably very few of us who wouldn’t bother locking just because we figured the few determined thieives would get in anyway.

With the flow hive, there is two theft risks:
Someone stealing your USD$600 hive, and
Someone opening the hatches and using a Flow tool to steal your honey!

The theft of honey from a flow hive is easier for a person with no beekeeping gear than from a traditional hive. If someone were to steal your tradition frames, they would need beekeeping gear and extracting gear, but to steal honey from a Flow, all you need are the ‘keys’ and the tubes, some jars, and about 2 hours.

I’m working on some designs to enable Flow owners to lock up the access points to prevent honey theft. Look cost ideas that can be easily installed by the average owner. I’ll post some draft concepts in the coming weeks for others to critique and comment on.

Thanks for thinking of some ways to secure the hives and the honey!

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If someone knows you have something to steal, thieves will come. No need to broadcast information and locations. Be discreet.

Put a sign: Africanized Killer Bees - or similar.

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True, if someone wants something bad enough, they will find a way to take it. The key is the ‘message’, the deterrent. I’m planning on putting dummy cameras were they can been seen and a sign that say property is under surveillance. And…on a funny note, you could also do the barking dog recording!