I am looking to purchase a hive and want to know what it takes to own a flow hive. How much work is involved and what do I need to learn before making the purchase.
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A flowhive makes harvesting easier. It doesn’t make bee husbandry easier.
My best advice is to find a local beekeeping club, attend a meeting or two, and do an introduction to beekeeping course.
Also, something usually only considered late in the piece… Can you deadlift 30kg? If not, will/can you have sufficient space around the hive to facilitate a spare box or bench to move frames etc as you remove the Super to do a brood inspection?
Edit: only buy a flowhive from Flow and not a cheap knockoff
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You are doing the right thing but thinking it through and asking questions now.
Snowflake has nailed it. The lifting is the most often complaint, with both normal and flow supers, of starting beekeepers.
I’ve been getting people to look through the short Western Australian Apiarists’ Society Best Practise Guidelines for Urban Beekeepers as a good shirt premier. Www.waas.org.au
I’d also say weigh up the option of a flow hybrid super with both flow frames and “normal” with a full flow super. In my mind it does open up some management options that are more fiddily in the full super.
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Great advice. Thank you. Not sure if I can deadlift 30kg or not but my husband is a surf lifesaving iron man so he shoudl be good for that.
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Yes, I have a habit of just rushing into things so this time I thought I would do all the research first to really know what I am getting myself into. Would you say it is the worth the work? I really want to assist in helping the bees on this planet and want to live as self-sustainable as possible.
Thank you for your recommendations.
I find beekeeping to be like having backyard chooks. They take a little bit of effort, time and money to set up right from the start. They take regular management that is easily worked into my schedule and their products nice to have and great fully shared for our extended family.
One thing not mentioned yet is plan on two hives in your life. It makes learning and managing contingencies much easier.
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It’s worth it, yes. At least that’s my opinion.
I did two bee courses before I got my hive and it was well worth it to give me an insight into what I was getting in for and to actually learn a little about the husbandry and some of the research currently underway (one of the courses was at UWA).
If you’re interest is bees you should also consider native pollinators. Not sure of your exact location in NSW but you might also be able to get native stingless bees if you’re up in the northern part of the State. And you’ll probably find that once you get bees you’ll be inclined to look after your garden differently (no/reduced pesticides, herbicides etc, if you currently use them) and over time you’ll notice a natural increase in native pollinators.
I am in Northern NSW, pretty much on the NSW/QLD border. We have 1 1/2 acres with a variety of fruit trees. We do not use any chemical on land or plants. I would most certainly be interested in native pollinators.
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Thank you for your feedback. I have had chooks so definitely understand the work involved there.
Hi @Jacqui1227 I hear you, I jumped in boots and all. In mid November last year I purchased my nuc of bees, no courses, but many late nights here on honeyflow forum. Thankfully I got my bees so late, that I wasn’t able to install the flow box this honey season. Though more by fluke, than good management, my bees seem to be progressing well, and I have been able to add a second brood box, as we are having a great season, with no sign yet of a dearth occurring, as the bees still seem to be going flat out collecting both pollen and nectar, though not always easy to tell, as most of the bees dive so quickly into the twin opening, making it hard to see.
If I could go back and start again, I would have done a lot more studying about beekeeping before getting my FH2, and the bees, that’s for sure. But here I am wading through all the dos and don’t of owning bees, and I just hope that I live long enough to know what I’m doing. 