I own a gourmet,organic honey company in Hawaii (Big Island) and we’re excited to receive our Flow Hive next month. If you want to see our progress or come see the hive you can follow us on our FB page, just search FB for Rare Hawaiian Honey Company.
Michael
I ordered a 7-frame Flow Hive, but it won’t arrive until December! We had bees in Eastern Washington for 7 years, and now here on the Big Island for 18 months. I sold one top bar hive with our old home in HPP, so I only have one right now in Puna Palisades.
I would certainly love to see your Flow Hive in action after it arrives.
Shep
Question: after the Varoa outbreak in HI, are you guys still allowed to import bees from the mainland? Here, on Guam, no imports are (legally) allowed, in order to prevent/control the Varoa (and other pests), although some have been found on island and we apparently have hive beetles as well. So, we’re finding feral hives to cut and “domesticate.”
No problem Shep. Watch our FB page and you’ll know when we have it.
Aloha,
Michael
We have never been allowed to import bees from the mainland, before or after the arrival of Varroa. Some idiot brought in a container of used bee equipment around 2007, forever changing what was a beekeepers paradise.
Michael
I’m running 3 kinds of SHB traps on my hives in south Capt. Cook area. I pull about a hundred dead beetles a week from two hives. Do you have the same problem in Waimea?
Beetles are always a problem. As long as the colony is strong, the bees seem to keep them at bay, but as soon as the mites start to weaken the hive the beetles can destroy it. We are organic, so there’s very little we are allowed to put inside the hive, so we put trays of diatomaceous earth under each hive. The bees chase the beetles into the tray and they die. We can also put soapy water in the tray…or oil, but that’s too messy for us.
I hear you on the SHBs. They said November when I put in my donation so if you are getting your Flow Hive next month you must have really got in early. I live in Keauhou and am really interested in how your new Flow Hive will work out. Good luck, Michael!!!
Apple
Here in Palisades we get some beetles, but I have an oil trap below our topbar hive, so the bees take carer of themselves.
My order is scheduled for December. I can’t wait! I didn’t order the brood box. I’m beginning to regret not doing that. I’m going to start looking for a brood box now so we are ready for that new arrival. We will most likely set up a new colony in the Honey Flow, then eventually replace the current topbar with a new Honey Flow. I really like having two hives.
Two queens in separators, with common supers? What a novel idea. I’d like to see one in operation before doing it.
just looking to find some Hawaii Flow Hive Owners and checking to see how are you doing with the Flow Hive?
Our Flow Hive has worked great! I recently set two more up for the Fairmont
Orchid…the honey is pouring in right now so I suspect we will have a
harvest in about a month.
Aloha,
Michael
Michael L. Domeier, Ph.D.
President
Marine Conservation Science Institute
72-1137 Makalei Drive
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
(808) 464-0075
www.MarineCSI.org http://www.marinecsi.org/
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Are the Flow hives at the Orchid easily accessible to view? (Or any others on the Big Island) I’d love to see them in action before I get mine up and running.
The hives at the Fairmont Orchid are very easy to view. There are 4 Flow
Hives on a little knoll on the back of the hotel…hard to describe how to
get there, but if you ask any of the staff at the entrance to the hotel
they can tell you.
Aloha,
Michael