My wooden parts arrived today, and a fun afternoon of assembly ensued! Other than a couple of minor cracks, and a slight bit of sanding, everything went together beautifully. Now to sit on my hands and wait for the rest, right?
I’m looking forward to reading all of the various experiences, and most especially spring! We’re pretty rural, yard visitors in the summer months usually include deer, elk, bear, and bobcat… so it will be interesting to see how they react to the new bear fence, and how the Flow Hive holds up in our brutally intense sunshine. From the look of it, it should be just fine
I do plan on sealing it. Right now we are leaning toward ECO Wood Stain / Preservative. However, The Western Colorado Bee Keepers have their first public meeting on Wednesday. I was going to attend and see what they have to say about it. I will certainly report back!
Glad that you are attending a local meeting. However, I would NOT confess to having a Flow hive to them if you are a new beekeeper. We got away with it at our local meeting, because we have around 30 years of experience, and they believe that we understand traditional methods of beekeeping. Sorry to say this, but you may be in a position like Galileo with the Inquisition looking for issues with your equipment and concepts. However, you can always come back here for some rationality!
If it were me, at your local meeting I would just talk about a “deep” western cedar box. They are fairly likely to be quite hostile to the Flow concept - not a rational response, but beekeepers can be luddites, and they won’t always respect those who are bringing something new but are still willing to learn. Not guaranteed, but worth wearing some Kevlar! However, lots of them might help you construct and seal a new brood box, without criticizing. Sorry to sound subversive, but there are some really irrational people out there!
I’m not much of a social person, it’s going to take all of my willpower just to go to a meeting and ask questions where I don’t know anyone. I have no intention of giving them any more information than they need, which is ‘it’s western red cedar’. Sounds terrible, but I’m more than aware how resistant my valley is to change. We had a few problems last year when I started keeping chickens, apparently my ‘mobile coop’ offends their sensibilities
Thanks for the head’s up!
Hello and welcome.
You can tell your group you’ll be keeping bees in a Langstroth hive which is the truth. The Flow part is just the method of harvesting which you might not get to anyway until 2017 since you’ll need the bees to build up to 2-3 deep brood boxes to survive the winter.
However, lots of them might help you construct and seal a new brood box, without criticizing. Sorry to sound subversive, but there are some really irrational people out there!