Flowhive has produce a series of videos specific to beekeeping with the Flowhive.
These are a great resource for inexperienced beeks and old hands alike.
Viewing the videos will answer many common questions raised by Flowbeeks!
Found the video by Martin really fantastic in helping me to put my hives together these last few days. Yes, while Martin makes it look effortless, it took me a few days to get everything done. I just put them up on the stand a couple of hours ago. Before starting to put them together, assembling these will make your life easier:
- Wood glue, to fix the things that go wrong
- 2 drills, one for drilling missing holes, the other for setting screws (or you will be changing bits all the time)
- Sandpaper, to sand down the honey access panel and closure strip (rear window and retainer) so you can actually remove it without ripping off the cute little knobs and ripping out the closure strip
- Wood putty, to fill the holes that were incorrectly drilled - why someone drilled holes through the roof nowhere near the roof support still has me baffled, but no problem, all sorted out now
- Mallet, to tap said honey access panel (rear window) in and out while sanding down until it fits
- Screwdriver, for the more finicky moments
- Hammer
- Set square or steel square
There were several little bugbears, but nothing huge, and overall I am really delighted with the quality of the hive.
And, thank you Flow for the little hat and veil - it was a delightful surprise.
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Just wanted to thank the Flow group for all their education/ resources posted on this site! My hive was recently molested by a bear, and (luckily only) one flow frame was completely demolished. After a few days of looking at the pieces, I figured, what the heck, letās see if itās salvageable. With the help of the ācomplete frame assemblyā video, I had it back together in no time! Canāt think of many other companies that will so readily share free information to salvage parts, rather than just sell a new one. Sadly I wonāt be harvesting much honey from the flow frames this year, thanks to the bear, but looking forward to another trial next year! Thanks again!!
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Glad to hear you were able to salvage the parts and they werenāt smashed by the bear. And they say Australia is dangerous!
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I purchased my Flow hive set back in 2015 during the hectic days when the orders were coming in faster than the company could get them produced. I finally, after back surgery, was able to start doing more things around our 11 acres in West Texas, one of those was assembling the Flow hive we purchased. I was suitably impressed with the concept of the Flow frames and every thing looked intact and complete when I checked the boxes it came in. When I went to put it together a week ago I started running in to problems, and they were not addressed in the instruction manual or assembly manual. I realize that in todays world everything is āon the internetā, but there are some of us who live in such places that the connections are so slow, bandwidth limited, or even computer illiterate that we canāt get the videos. I fall somewhere in those categories, but I wonāt say which 
, That I think having a set of written instructions and drawings would be helpful, especially larger drawings for failing eyes 
, It took me a while with a magnifying glass and the pictures to see that the slight under cuts were where the reinforcing bar went and I had to go back and change panels from one box to the other. So much for my building prowess . The customer relations were quite patient with me and were willing to replace anything I thought I needed, so I sent pictures in and a couple of days later I get the reply that changing the panels might help. I did write back and tell the young Gentleman, Kieran, that I had figured it out, she had been off for a week so there was no real problem with the time lapse, one of her coworkers sent an email saying that she was out, so I understood the delay and was happy to deal with the same person (great customer service) and that was when the offer was made to replace what ever āIā thought would be beneficial, not what the company probably already knew needed to be done. I am really impressed with this type of customer service and want to thank them all for their help, The only thing that was not fixable is the thinness of the key slot cover (anyone else have a problem with this on the earlier models?) and the two Flow frames that have plugs so loose they will fall out of the drain holes. (Again, anyone with this issue?)
Over all I am very impressed with everything about this company and the design of the Flow frames, I am just waiting for a nuc to see how it works in West Texas.
So, in conclusion, I would love to see a little more detail in the assembly manual for those of us without good access to the internet, and ask the company to keep up the good work and the wonderful customer support.
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Hi Kenneth,
Thanks for your feedback Iāll pass it on to Kieran (who is actually a fella 
)
We did actually review the manual, and re-do it, so it should be better.
It is available as a pdf online - https://www.honeyflow.com/media/docs/Flow_Classic_Assembly_Guide_US_280916.pdf
I wonder if it is better for you, or if you still think it needs improvement.
I havenāt heard about the key slot cover being thin beforeā¦
If you have loose caps - you can email into Kieran and he can send some replacement caps for you
Faroe,
I will have to apologize to him, I just canāt tell from names any more. I guess I am just to old fashioned. Lol. I did email him through the @faults address already about the two Flow frameās drain plugs and the key cover. This was very early in the production process and there must have been a lot of rushing to get things done in manufacturing. I do wood working when I have time, and was apprenticed to a master wood worker for several years. His big training tool was hand cutting dovetails so that they fit perfectly, which I was never great at, but I can see how the rush on finger joints is easily misaligned or cut just a little deep. Like I told Kieran, once the panels were changed the gapes mostly went away. Yes, I did down load the PDF for the classic WRC and it does not mention looking for the notches to pair them for the Flow box. A lot of this is probably me needing to have a magnifying glass to see the notches in the picture. The wording un the PDF:
- Affix the metal strip (in the two notches at the bottom of the panels). Turn the Flow box upside down.
Put the rear window cover in place. To maintain
clearance, temporarily place some packing material,
about the width of a credit card, between the rear
window cover and the box side. Screw the metal strip
in place (pre-drilling may avoid splitting the wood). See
inset diagram.
It could use the simple addition of what I put in parentheses, or the inset picture could point out the notches in the that the metal strip is sitting in.
I know this seems like it should be obvious, but a lot of people donāt read instructions and for me it was just too small to see. I had the magnification op to 400x on the screen before I could really tell what it was.
These are just some opinions from someone who has put a lot of things together and had to fix the mistakes doctors made in research. Lol. They are notorious for not reading instructions or looking at what they are doing. 
One last thing, I notices in the drawings that the swivel lock for the viewing panel had been either moved higher or made a little narrower, because on mine if I donāt get the locking bar positioned just right, it still interferes with removing the viewing port. Not major, but a little frustrations. 
Thank you for your response and thank you for letting me know about Kieran, I will have to go correct my post and apologize.
Kenneth Myers
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No problem 
Just after I read this post, I got notification of our new assembly manual.
So I will add your comments to the message.
Maybe the instructions just need to be bigger. I think they have probably done it smaller to save on paper.
But it is small, even for me 
This is the updated versionā¦
Hi Faroe, I agree with Kenneth. It was a while ago that I did mine but I had trouble from memory around the fixing of the metal strip too. I think that was the only issue. I think as Kenneth says some extra or clearer instruction there would be useful. Wouldnāt you turn the flow box upside down before you affix the metal strip?
Also, I canāt remember seeing any instructions on how to remove the flow frames after the bees have been working on them for a while. I have seen in a video or two in more recent times from the flow team showing how they do it -even the suggestion perhaps of using two hive tools - which I wish I had found earlier. Apologies if there are written instructions somewhere as to that. Just a couple of suggestions anyhow. Thanks.
Hiya Faroe, having spent a lot of time working through exploded view diagrams as a fitter and turner I can only see one problem with the drawing and that is the inset picture in the circle is not identified or set in the same direction as the main drawing so I can see why some people can get confused.
Apart from that itās perfect.
Okā¦so now I think the words, or instruction, āAffix the metal stripā do not quite mean what I understood them to during the assembly process. I initially understood it to be a direction to āAffix the metal stripā and then move on to another step (like tuning the box upside down and inserting the window and so on). Perhaps it is a meant as a heading which could read, " Affixing the metal strip" ā¦and could then go on to describe how to do that. Perhaps it could say, āTo affix the metal strip, turn the flow box upside down and etc. etc.ā. I have shown my son the instructions and he agrees with me about this for what it is worth. I am writing this to see if others besides Kenneth and I had a hiccup at this point. if so, it could be helpful to the Flow team in the future when reviewing their assembly document.
Hi,
Iām not sure what you mean by "not the same direction"
Do you mean the picture with the credit card and the metal strip in the picture?
So you mean to turn it around so that it aligns with the picture to the right of it?
Sorryā¦ tis a bit confusing for me 
Yes I agree. I think I was confused when I read that too.
Would definitely be a bit clearer for me if it said:
Instructions to affix the metal strip:
- Turn the Flow box upside down.
- Put the rear window cover in place. To maintain
clearance, temporarily place some packing material,
about the width of a credit card, between the rear
window cover and the box side. - Look for the two notches/indentations in the panels, then screw the metal strip in place (pre-drilling may avoid splitting the wood). See
inset diagram
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Hiya Faroe, yes you are correct. The inset diagram would usually be a magnified picture to express a finer detail. It should at least show where on the main diagram it it from.
Personally, as I have an engineering background, I didnāt have a problem and wouldnāt have said anything but as the issue was raised I thought I should offer my 2 cents worth after all, weāre all here to help.
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Thanks for that. Yes an arrow would be helpful.
Or a label saying box upside down to attach metal strip.
The more simple and clear, the better for everyone Myself included
Hi there, Iām just assembling my flow give and Iāve gotten to the roof part. It is a little tricky, and so I followed the instructions to watch a video, except the construction of my roof is different to what is being demonstrated. Mine has the ridge cap that sits down between the shingles and I canāt find anyone who is demonstrating the best way to make sure they align. Also, on the front and back panel of my roof, both now have the logo, so it took some sleuthing to work out which was front and which was back. Just simply saying that the back is smaller would have helped.
@Forum_Support
Make sure you silicon all the joins in the roof shingles. My roof leaked from capillary action and caused mould inside the hive. That part is also left out of the instructions. I think they hope it will all seal from 3 or 4 layers of paint.
Hi Bella,
There are two roof designs, one with a ridge cap that sits above the shingles, and one with a ridge gap that sits between the singles and has an over hang for the singles to slot into.
From what you have described here is the video that you should watch for assembly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn4oya-HwFc
Hope it goes well!
Pictures of it completed would be really great to see.
Kieran
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Hi Robert, just be aware that paint wont stick to silicone. Just in case you you have silicone around the joints that you want to paint over later on.
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