My mentor reckons it’s a bit cheeky demonstrating a fake Chinese copy on the Flow Forum.
2 Likes
I think @Freebee2 would agree with your mentor, @JeffH. The roof with two vent holes, and the strange latches on the frame covers are dead giveaways… 
2 Likes
It’s funny you say that Dawn, I put 3 of them together recently. The roof, the latches etc.are all familiar.They have colonies in waiting for the owner to pick them up. If he doesn’t do anything (even a phone call) by this Wednesday, the colonies are going to someone else.
1 Like
I have flagged this and the other post that shows the same hive. I will let Flow decide what happens next. 
Send my best to your mentor, she is a fantastic buddy for you!
1 Like
I just did, she said hi back. I doubt that you needed to flag this thread. Just tagging Free’s name should be enough 
It’s a 35deg. day, so I’m not doing much. Wilma’s going to send you a photo of her helping our daughter with her bees, knowing it it wont last long on the forum.
2 Likes
There’s one in every crowd. No bee suit, gloves or veil.
1 Like
So nice to see a photo of Wilma! She is usually behind the camera, well done on capturing her in the wild! 
2 Likes
Our daughter Joyce took that. She’s like me, has to be suited & gloved up. She removed her gloves to take the photo.
2 Likes
She removed the gloves to take some photos of frames I had questions about for Jeff, and the poor thing promptly got stung on the finger. Me, they did not bother. I told her later, next time say thank you to the bee for the arthritis treatment lol. Wilma
3 Likes
I have heard Wilma call a bee something like “you little mongrel” for the gift of a sting. I am glad that the attitude is so positive now…
2 Likes
Surprised this fake product got passed you.
1 Like
Admin might not work on the weekends. It might be a different story in the morning, our time.
1 Like
@Bianca, @Freebee2 the video is still available to watch if someone likes to “view hidden content”. I wont be upset by losing my comments while closing the topic down, I fully expected it.
cheers
1 Like
I am totally confused. Is the poster selling counterfeit Flow frames?
I’ve seen lots of people ask for help here after mistakenly buying a fake and have been received with open arms as it’s more about the bees.
Is the problem that the counterfeit ones are shown to seemingly work?
So does this set a precedence that anyone who either mistakenly or deliberately purchased a counterfeit Flow will be condemned on this forum?
Although designed for Apis Mellifera it shows that using the hive is also suitable for Apis Cerana also well, maybe, I’m not sure the poster will be back to answer after their welcoming…
Shame.
1 Like
Hi Everyone,
Whilst Flow is encouraging for the forum to be used for education purposes on all beehive types, it is a different story for illegal counterfeit Flow products, and for multiple reasons.
The main and most important reason being that Flow owns the registered Intellectual Property portfolio for our technology and design in all major territories across the globe (including China) and these fake copycats are a direct infringement against our rights. It is illegal to manufacture, distribute and sell fake Flow, thus, we do not want to support these illegal operations in any way.
The product and customer support quality of the counterfeit hives are typical of the counterfeit industry. There are also many overlooked nuances of the Flow Hive design in the fake hives that Cedar and Stu refined in their 10+ year product development process. Flow cannot be expected to take responsibility or offer advice for the functioning of the fake hives if they have not been made by us and are an illegal attempt to copy our product.
The fake hives are also made from non-food-grade plastic and are potentially toxic for the bees. Need we say anymore?
Thanks for your support.
4 Likes
If the poster does come back to answer, it’ll most likely be in Indonesian. The title was in Indonesian. panen perdana = the first harvest.
1 Like
These fakes come with a mesh crown board as in this photo.
The roof comes with 2 large holes on either end. You can see by this next photo how after just 10 days how a nuc sized colony is trying to propolize the huge mesh area.
It would be a huge task, even for a strong colony to propolize that whole area.
As it says in the title, “another fake. Don’t buy it”
1 Like
The Hive itself is pretty well made in fairness. I got my hands on one (new) for ÂŁ20 from someone in the UK.
The cover board like you say is pretty useless.
Very poor quality wooden queen excluder.
Plastic windows cracked and popped off the screws when assembling due the very tight dovetail joints.
Not enough screws to fully secure all boxes.
No metal brace across the base of the super, this also leaves a gap that bees and any honey would get out or leak into the brood box below.
No adjustment screw at the rear of the “auto flow frames” as advertised again posing a gap issue front and rear.
“Auto Flow Frames” as advertised, I’d never use as you can clearly see the quality issues.
Flow have already mentioned the non food grade plastic used and that’s obvious too, very thick and heavy duty plastic, strong chemical smell from them and the harvesting tubes are poor quality.
To top it all no harvesting key inside 
.
Hive for £20 so I’m quids in just for the woodwork.
Sad the UK is awash with these imitation auto flow hives 