Hi Heather, there’s only 2 more shows in the series… It’ll be worth watching to see if those Flow frames fill up.
It upsets me as well, to see his rough handling, with what looks like no respect for the bees.
Hi Jeff,
I’m glad you agree. Yes, it will be interesting to compare the flow hive harvest.
I’m sure the honey will be a lot cleaner than his honey from frames that were extracted by centrifugal force…and certainly kinder and less disruptive to the bees.
Hi Again Heather, I use a centrifuge to extract honey. I would argue that my honey is just as clean as honey out of a Flow hive harvest. I don’t believe that removing honey frames to be put into a centrifuge is any more disruptive to the bees, which really depends on the operator as to how many bees get killed while removing & replacing frames.
Most of the old time Flow operators agree that it’s best to first check the frames before harvest. It’s impossible to carry out that task without killing bees.
1 Like
You are right. It’s down to the operator.
I’m just so very very careful with my bees.
I just have the one flow hive but am looking forward to my first harvest which will hopefully be by Christmas.
4 Likes
Just watched the recent episode and watched him extract honey from a flow hive. He made an absolute mess of it.
The super is on back to front.
The honey wasn’t capped.
This could be good or bad PR for flow 
The Mexican honey wasp was interesting.
1 Like
Hi Fred, I also watched it. I agree, he DID make a mess of harvesting the Flow hive, plus that Mexican Honey Wasp was interesting.
That cut-out from under the floor brought back memories, because it’s impossible to carry out such a removal without getting covered in honey. It just drips all over you. I don’t know how he did it with bare hands. Then to tackle that second one straight after, I thought for me would have been pretty hard, especially being all sticky after the first one.
1 Like
After the earlier episodes I wasn’t going to watch any more but it was suggested that I wait and see how he harvested the flow hive.
I’m a newbie but even I know how to read instructions!!
I still think he’s too gung-ho and rough with the bees. How many does he kill throwing those hives around. 
2 Likes
Hi Heather, it upsets me to see how many bees he must kill. It just takes a little bit more time with some smoke to drive the bees away from where you want to place things.
He doesn’t need to use a blower to drive every last bee out of the frames. I find that as I drive away, the bees fly out anyway. That’s from the back of my ute.
Decapping with that scratcher is not ideal. A hot knife does a much better job, plus it leaves the frames nice & uniform again…
Charlie charges top dollar for his honey… I need to start charging more - to make up for the stings I’ve had to endure I suspect Charlie has been stung way more times than I 
1 Like
Hi Fred, he probably charges top dollar for everything. He probably charged Flow top dollar to promote the Flow hive, then he turned around & messed up the harvesting of it.
Those bottles of honey he sells are only 1lb or 450g. $12 is good money if people are prepared to pay it.
1 Like
Flow never paid for any form of advertisement with this TV series. This includes any donated products. Charlie or the producers did contact Flow early on letting us know about the show and Cedar actually gave Charlie instructions on how to harvest correctly, which is interesting.
We’ll be getting back in touch with Charlie to give him some pointers on harvesting to help him with a better experience moving forward, for him and the bees.
5 Likes
Hi Bianca, thanks for clearing that up. In the credits they list Flow as one of the suppliers, along with Maxant, Bobcat, the bike people, plus a couple of others.
In one of the episodes he gave credit to his mentors. I wonder if he is imitating them, or whether he is going his own way. They do have hive beetles in his area. It’s not a good practice to squash bees, because beetles will lay eggs in the bodies if the house bees can’t readily remove them.
I’ve seen enough American beekeeping videos to reach the conclusion that I’ll stick with my hive mat - migratory lid setup. Especially after seeing all that bur comb & honey on top of one of his honey frames.
PS @Bianca & @Heddyjan , I’m sharing this video, which kind of makes Charlie a saint 
2 Likes
Do understand what they are doing with the brood frames they’re spinning? Is that simply to harvest the micro amount of honey in the top arch, and they intend to return the brood to the hive? Surely not, I can’t imagine the brood would survive. Or are they sacrificing the brood for the tiny bit of honey instead?
Hi Bianca, apparently it IS just to harvest the honey. Maybe the brood survives, or most of it. That type of spinner might not be as hard on the brood as a 2 frame spinner, for example, where the honey comes out by centrifugal force.
I watched the bloke returning the frames. He appeared to be careful which way he arranged the frames, & was a bit slower then when they took them out. I heard the bloke speaking in broken English & mentioned artificial pollen, which could be what they put in before closing the lids.
2 Likes
The final episode was interesting, hard to watch at times, as well as fascinating to watch the lady who had been catching queens & attendants for 40 yrs. She was pretty to watch, how fast she picked up those attendants. She didn’t say “ouch” once.
1 Like