Talkiing to bee keepers with the conventional hives be it Langstroth or top hive or Bee Barns or the like and seeing some of the questions on the forum, i can see why or how there is a disrespect for the flow hive with some bee keepers.
It’s not so much the flow hive but the attitude of the new bee keepers to the flow hive.
Wether you have a flow hive, Langstroth, Bee barn, top hive or another type, you have a box with bees in it. You must manage it in similar ways. You still have to be a bee keeper and do the inspections.
Bee keepers are tell me they have more issues mentoring new bee keepers with flow hives because a small percentage don’t think they need to do the inspections, that the hive will look after it’s self and they only need to worry about turning the key to get the honey.
Wether you have a flow hive or a Langstroth, manage your bees. BEE a BEE KEEPER
Hi Daz, I have met quite a few people who fall into that category. One bloke didn’t buy a smoker. His reason being that because he owns a Flow hive, he wont need a smoker.
Did I tell you about my brush with infamy? That bloke only wants to harvest honey. He had some beginners luck in his first year, which prompted him to purchase 3 more hives, 3 fake Flows. Since then it’s been all down hill.
I’ve had lots of people show interest in getting bees in my 4 years of having them.
I’ve talked to more of them out of it than I have helped get into it. You can tell the ones that have the right attitude and are actually going to do it properly, as opposed to the ones you speak of.
I think it’s our job to talk people out of it when you don’t think they’re in it for the right reasons. They’re the ones that won’t be managing their hives if / when varroa spreads across Australia making it worse for everybody.
Cheers
Ron
