Hi and hello from Germany to all.
First of all, please excuse my mistakes, obviously I’m not an english native speaker. 
My name ist Angela, 33yrs, mother of a 9-year-old son and proud owner of 7 flow frames ^^ I’m only just beginning and taking a beginners course here, I don’t even have any bees yet. But I’m more than motivated! Bee season is about to start and it won’t be long till I finally get a hive!
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Hi Angela,
I am glad to meet you ! I am Gerald and I live in Washington state near Seattle. I am glad you are taking beekeeping class n getting ready for your honeybees. I was a beekeeper many years ago when I was in school. Now I am like new beekeeper. I am waiting for my bees to arrive also.
I wish you good luck n a successful first year. Send photos as you get your bees. We would all enjoy seeing your hive n progress.
Gerald
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Hallo Angela! Ich wohne in Georgia in den USA. Ich war in Deutschland stationiert von '86 durch '89. Ich liebte die dort leben und mein Sohn war auch dort geboren!! (Fulda)
I took my first beekeeping class this past Saturday and am looking forward to receiving my bees as well 
I never encountered any beekeepers in the small village I lived in (Bimbach) but I am certain there had to have been at least one. Too many beautiful fields and wonderful gardens for bees. Do many beekeepers there in Germany still do things the old way with skeps, Bienenhäuser and pipe smokers held in their mouths or are there more folks with typcal Langstroth hives?
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Hi Bobby.
It can be quite hard to spot those bee keepers in small villages. Unfortunately fields and gardens are not neccessarily signs for healthy bee life. Aggressive pesticides are often used without any care. Main thoughts of “traditional” german gardeners are perfectly perfect flowers and crops, so wild insects and “weeds” are viewed as threat that has to be eliminated at any cost… Especially the generation around 50yrs are kind of “brainwashed” in that sense, although protecting our environment is advancing.
Some of the older bee keepers don’t like anything new and are kind of scared from young people. 
Most of them use magazines, but there are dozens of sizes - literally. And everyone is convinced that HIS used size is the best and all the others suck… Often they only differ by a few millimeters. The older people still use hives where you access the frames from the backside instead of from top (Hinterbehandlungsbeute). Those have the avantage to be stackable, so you can use them in a cart (Wanderwagen) to move to suitable places like fruit cultivations or flowering fields. They are also used in bee houses (Bienenhäuser), but bit by bit those are also equipped with magazines, if still in use. Disadvantage is of course that you have to remove all frames if you want to check one and you can’t give them additional boxes if needed. Langstroth is kind of exotic here in Germany, people tend to look at me amazed and with a bit of pity
Some traditionalists keep up the knowledge of how to use skeps (had to look that word up) just for museum reasons. Pipe smokers are still sold, but those with bellows are more common (and better for your teeth ;)) Young bee keepers seem to bring new impulses, but are often held down by the older “we always did it that way” guys. I tried to talk about the flow frames to some of them, but they didn’t want to know. It’s complete nonsense for them. Some younger female attendants of the beginner course were interested, but the old men didn’t even want to hear a word about it.
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Hello Angela, and everyone.
My name is Pedro, and I live in Germany since almost a year, with my partner Anna.
Since a couple months we being saving money to get some of the honeflow frames, to start with a friend a Bees project in Giessen.
We looking forward to get 5x Classic 7. (around 2300€) And just today we being thinking on “taxes or Importing rates”. And honestly, we cant find much info. Did any of you have pay an importing cost or have any experience with that?
I’ll really appreciate your help or any information related.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Pedro & Anna
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I just got the package with gls. They delivered it to my door like any normal package. No extra fuss.
Aye AngoraAngry!
Thanks for your time and reply!
Loves
P&A
Woohoo! ^^ I got my very first hive on tuesday! Now I’m a real beekeeper! I’m so excited ^^
So is Mr. dog - he was very interested in the strange buzzing from inside the box and started catching bees as soon as I opened the box the next morning. I had to fence the hive in…
The girls already seem to have found a source of pollen, I spotted a bee with a little yellow on her hind legs. I have a willow tree in my garden about 20m from the hive.
Today we have nasty weather, windy, rainy, chilly, so they stay inside. Hopefully the food they brought with them will last long enough. The cold period is supposed to last a few days…
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Hallöchen!
Hab mir eben erst die Bienenkiste bestellt, Teil 2 kommt nächste Woche 
Hast du schon Bienen? Und Honig??
Woher kommst du?
Grüßerei aus Herford bei Bielefeld,
Meike
Hallihallo!
Funktioniert denn die Bienenkiste mit flow frames? Oder meinst du das Magazin?
Ich hab mittlerweile 2 Völker, 1 Ableger und 1 Schwarm, der höchstwahrscheinlich aus VOlk 2 gekommen ist. Trotz wöchentlicher KOntrolle…
Honig ist zwar in den Völkern drin, aber draußen hab ich noch keinen. Ich will nur aus den Flow Frames ernten und die sind ja noch nicht voll ^^
Next stop: First flow harvest! 
Won’t take very long anymore. I have two or three people now who want to attend and watch the honey flow. All of them - surprise! - men in their “second half of life”. They really are exceptions!
My dear busy girls 
Now the outer surface is massivly getting worked at. The view through the side window changed rapidly over the last two days from some bees fumbling around to serious business going on.
My patch of crimson clover started to bloom and the bees love it! They also found some huge chestnut trees in full flower and bring in much red pollen. Looks frightening to see those “blood stained” combs
Hallo Angy,
Ende April durften meine Bienen in den Flow Hive einziehen
gut zwei Wochen später sind die ersten in den Honigraum eingezogen.
Inzwischen ist der Honigraum voll mit Bienen doch Honig bringen Sie keinen
in die Plastik Waben.
Gruß
Thomas
Die müssen ja auch erstmal die Zellen verschließen
Erst wenn sie diese kleinen Wachsbrücken gebaut haben, bleibt der Honig in den Zellen und dann fangen sie von der Mitte der Zarge her an zu füllen. Siehst du also nicht von außen.
Bei mir sieht der mittlere Frame inzwischen so aus (Stand Samstag abend):
Durchs Guckfenster an der Seite sieht man aber immer noch keinen Honig.
Edit: Ich hab den Flow Super am 29.4. aufgesetzt.
Ja dann hoffe ich das es dieses Jahr wenigstens einmal etwas zu ernten gibt.
Gruß Thomas
Gibt es!
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I finished my first honey season today. Drained all frames and let the bees clean them up before storing the flow supers. Hive 1 totaled 18,3kg of honey, hive 2 gave me 12,5kg. Not too bad for the first year of beekeeping, starting with two last years splits. I had 1 swarm from hive 2 and got splits out of both hives before harvesting at all.
It wasn’t such a brilliant idea to harvest in the morning with 2 other hives (splits) around… It took me about 3hrs to drain all 7 frames section per section, as recommended here. The longer it took, the more bees came around to see what they could get. Also some wasps and bumblebees felt invited to the buffett… Cling wrap didn’t do the job very well, so I had to poke several bees out of my jars. I even had to use a skimmer to get a whole bunch of bees out of my bucket…
If ever the Andersons come up with a bee tight harvesting system, I’ll sure buy it!
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