Flow Hives keepers in Sweden

Hej Tobbe,
Jag tänker vrida på kranen nu i helgen, cellerna är inte täckta men jag har raps runt mig och det har varit torrt här nere länge så jag provar. När jag kände på ramarna så var dom tunga av honung.
Jörgen
Ramdala

Låter spännande hör gärna av dig med resultatet

Hur gick det? Risken finns att honungen inte är “mogen” om cellerna inte är täckta… eller åtminstone halva ramen.

Jo tack det gick bra, vi hade torrt väder, så det var låg vattenhalt i honungen, hoppas på ett sensommar drag nu annars får vi hoppas på nästa år. Det viktigaste för mig har varit att ramarna funkar här i sverige.
jörgen

Kul! Tog du några bilder på själva tömningen? Vi har inte testat farsans än då ramarna inte var fulla i juni (se bild) men han ska testa när han kommer tillbaka från semestern om ca 10 dagar. Vi har dock haft turen att få två nya samhällen av det första och har kunnat skörda honung från ramarna i nedre delen i flowhiven samt i den gröna kupan.
Vi har haft det angenäma problemet med otroligt bra tillväxt i samhället i både flowen (och i den gröna frigolitkupan), vilket har lett till att farsan fått bygga en del till med åtta klassiska ramar mellan den yngellådan och flowdelen. Idén är att ta av flowramarna under vintern och låta de två andra stå kvar med honung i så att de klarar sig fodermässigt.



1 Like

hej
Det ligger en film på forumet i under ämnet Flow hive, First harvest for me, in south of Sweden
mvh jörgen

Hello all, my husband and I are in Sweden and are extremely excited and interested in getting started and hope to order our Flow Hive in the coming weeks. We are just having a hard time finding someone who sells bees! And of course since we are completely new to the idea we are currently trying to learn everything we can. I am excited to see a seemingly thriving, albeit small, community in Sweden using the Flow Hive. We look forward to learning from your experiences and sharing our own!

On a side note, I, too, have unfortunately noticed the hostility from traditional beekeepers towards the Flow Hive and my answer is always the same: if improving upon an old design is so offensive, then I suggest that those people also stop using all of their power tools, lawn mowers, cars, dishwashers, laundry machines, and any other innovations that have led them to do the same jobs in an easier and sometimes gentler manner.

Have you all been able to harvest this year? Did you establish your hives this year or last year (most of what I have read was that hives cannot be harvested the first year they are being established)?

Hello!

I was wondering if any FlowHive keepers in Sweden could update how their hives did over the winter? Are things starting to come along and liven up now that spring is here? We are getting our bees next month and can’t wait to get going!

Hi Denise,

Our bees have been out flying all of last week. But we have still not looked inside.
We did put some insulation outside the hive in December.

I’ll try to keep you updated once we have had a look inside.

1 Like

Hi Denise,

After my first nervous winter my two hives have survived on one broodbox. I started late in the season, in July, with a Flow and a few weeks later with a Toreboda hive.
I built an insulation jacket for the Flow, which worked well, the other hive is pre-insulated. Our low was -19 Degs C.

Didn’t harvest anything, that’s for this year.

Bees became active last weekend and are very busy bringing in pollen. Did hive checks yesterday and was surprised to see so much in honey stores! I expected them to be running on empty. The Flow is approx. 60% full of capped honey still, plus uncapped. The Toreboda (10 frames) is approx 50%. Found eggs, larva and brood in both, and saw one queen. So all good!

I’ll check again next week but I’m wondering if the Flow might need a 2 broodbox sometime soon. There isn’t so much room left for the queen to do her magic.

A question to the more experienced gurus of the forum… Is it too early to add a second broodbox under the current one??
I’m guessing it’s better to be early than too late!

Good luck with your bees when they come.

1 Like

Wow, thank you for the replies, both sound very hopeful and positive! Jagestedt I look forward to hearing more updates and hope you find things are looking great inside! Huge, that is amazing! Might I ask in what area of Sweden your hives are? (far south, middle, north…). I am in Småland and am having a hard time finding any mentors in the area so I am trying to gather as much information as I can. :slight_smile:

Huge, also out of curiosity, you mentioned a second broodbox on the Flow hive, I had considered that might be needed here, as well. Will you build one or order one somewhere? I have been looking at equipment availability here and it doesn’t seem any of the hives in Sweden available are of a compatible size. Am I missing something? I have been looking at importing some Langstroth boxes from England, or else possibly building some ourselves.

Also, (my apologies for so many questions) since you both insulated your hives, do you feel it is necessary? I hadn’t planned on it but am now rethinking for this winter.

Hi Denise!
I can only confirm what has already been said by Huge and Jagestedt. My FH
has also survived the winter (I’m located in Skövde - southern part of
Sweden, just north of Småland…).
I’m continuing to have 2 brood boxes. I made/modified one out of an
uninsulated 10-frame box bought from Töreboda and I think it is time to put
the second one on, if you haven’t wintered them on 2 (as I always do).
I have also made an “overcoat” (or “hat”) for additional insulation -
worked very well, and I’m pretty convinced that it is necessary in Sweden.
I have converted my other existing hives in Norsk-format to accept a
FLowFrame by putting an “adapter-board” inbetween the boxes because mixing
formats is a bitch!
Good luck!
Thomas

Bästa hälsningar!

/Thomas Mätzsch

2017-04-02 22:24 GMT+02:00 Denise Fornara Ivarson <
honeyflow@discoursemail.com>:

1 Like

Hi Denise,

I’m in Northern Småland and I was lucky to find an experienced open minded mentor who was very intrigued by the Flow hive.

Regarding the 2nd brood box, I bought it from Flow when I bought more frames for the second hive.

I bought the Töreboda to have a ‘native Swedish hive’ plus to edge my bets in case of a winter loss and to have more standard equipment. But despite the native hive, I’ve struggled to find a feedbox for it, so i understand your frustration. I also looked to England for a feedbox for the Flow too, but after 6 months of trying to find one that fits, I’ve given up! It seems whatever you buy, you’ll end up with some form of hybrid. But, as always, it is more work adapting a solution. Having said that though, I could adapt the 10 frame uninsulated as a super for my Flow frames though, I’ll look into that, thanks Thomas!

As for insulation I read this http://www.beeculture.com/winter-management/ posted on this forum but I can’t remember by who. So I don’t take any credit for finding it. My jacket was built before it was posted, so mine has no air gap. Didn’t think of that.

Insulation is not necessarily needed though see ‘Per Lundblad’s snow capped Flow™ Hives. Winter in Stockholm - Sweden’ tweeted by Flow Hive https://mobile.twitter.com/flowhive/status/823765733062475777?s=11
It’s all down to personal choice and how much time you have.

Regarding adding the second brood box now, I think I’ll wait a week or two and then re-evaluate. I read that the bees will eats up stores fast as they grow the brood in early spring plus I think I disturbed them enough inspecting over the weekend. I’m not that fast inspecting yet.

1 Like

Hi Swedes!

Hope you’ve had a good season so far :slight_smile:

I’m an Aussie living in Stockholm area for the past 2 years.

I have just got my first hive of bees and am both excited and nervous for the road ahead!

My first battle is to move them from the Nacka LN hive and frames, over to my Langstroth. Has anyone had success or experience in doing this?

I’ve been given a couple of options -

Adaptor board between the two hives

Wire the LN frames to a list that fits into the langstroth

The frames are wired so I cannot do a cut out easily.

Love to hear your tips - I’m an absolute beginner here too, so the simpler the better!

Thanks heaps
Vanessa

1 Like

Hi Vanessa,

Good luck in beekeeping.

My two Hives came in the form of five Swedish LN frames. A laying queen, bees and brood.

To convert from LN I just took the top part of an LN frame and just shaved it down with a wood plane (otherwise it was a bit deep for the hive) and predrillled some pilot holes then just screwed that to the LN frame. It can easily be done with bees on the frame. I added the sides of the langstroth frame too so I could keep a uniform spacing between frames. The bees do build comb between but that is unavoidable. I gradually replaced the converted LNs with Langstroth frames over the following year once I had two brood boxes established.


3 Likes

Sorry I meant to say I took a top part of a Langstroth frame…

Hi Huge!

Thanks for the tips! And the photos are perfect to so I can see exactly what you’ve described…
I really thought it would be much harder than this. ( I say now :wink:)
Now to channel in to my high school wood work class - wish me luck!

Cheers,
Vanessa

Hej!
I mars 2018 blev jag tillfrågad av Flow-teamet om jag ville bli ambassadör för Deras företag och produkter, vilket jag självklart tackade JA till.

Som ambassadör kommer jag besvara frågor ur ett svenskt perspektiv

Det finns ett antal frågor i denna tråd, men de är så gamla att jag tror att ni redan fått svar, om inte skriv in frågan en gång till, så ska vi se om jag eller någon annan med erfarenhet av Flow Hive i Sverige kan svara.

Som Christer skriver ovan så finns det en grupp på Facebook som är mer aktiv än detta forum (för svenskar). Sök efter Flow Hive Sverige på Facebook så hittar du dit.

1 Like

Hej!
Hur har det gått för er?
Jag bor också i Vårgårda och skulle gärna komma på studiebesök om det är ok?
Mvh
Björn

Hejsan
Svenska gruppan.
Ny biodlare på syd kystan av skåne.
Ser fram imot hur detta system fungera.
Jag kan läsa att tungojla rekommenderas som grund skydd ?

Mvh
Kennet