Hi Jeff - I just went online and looked at what I thought was the original promotional video from Flow but couldn’t find these references. Was there more than one promo video perhaps?
I did hear and see a reference in the promo video that I just looked at that - in referring to commercial beekeepers and how useful it might be to them - that “the frames are built to accomodate a pneumatic system”.
Does anyone know if such a pneumatic system was ever tried and if it worked?
if you dig up the flow patents - there are actually references to such things- and other potential innovations. they didn’t limit the scope of the patent to just the frame we have seen.
My guess is the idea would work- but leaks could be a bigger problem with automation.
I wonder if Flow are working on any new innovations?
EDIT: here are the Australian Patents:
I never saw or heard the flow inventors speak about conventional beekeepers with disrespect. In fact, I have seen the flow mob and watched a lot of their videos and find them to be dignified, gentle and spiritual people.
The people who purchased flow frames during the first campaign knew well they were in for a trial period.
I am very impressed with the invention and never had any flooding happening, not even with my first flow hive. I open 20% at a time.
The free flow educational videos are great too. Never saw another company building frames or hives make that kind of effort.
We need to consider as well that the first promotional video was to get the flow frames known. The flow family must have been quite stunned with the unexpected success.
The flow forum is for us to talk about success and failure of our efforts. It is not for beekeepers to come in and bad talk because their conventional methods fail with the flow super. Beekeeping methods need to be adapted to work in with the flow hive if you chose to have a flow hive. Flow hivers are all pioneers and some are brand new to beekeeping.
I’m sure there is a forum for conventional beekeepers if one really hated the flow hive.
Hi Ronald,
Sorry to hear about your flow frame leaking honey.
I have the initial indiegogo package and also experienced some leaking. I didn’t quite understand the instructions when constructing the box re frame wires and the need to tighten them. So, i’m not sure where they’re at right now.
My experience would have honey appearing on the core-flute, on the side of the extraction. What i’ve noticed and done consistently to stop this is as follows:
I found that this initial cracking amount could go on a little bit longer than expected and if it was coming out while I cracked more frame, then I would see a leak.
Now, this may not be the result of what you are seeing (and may help others) as you’ve said the cells themselves burst open (is that how i’m interpreting it?). I would almost suggest that you have a manufacturing fault and may need to clean and send back to Flow to verify.
hey Webclan, they are indeed spiritual people, coming from Byron Bay and all 
Having met them they are indeed humble and helpful, as you say. I am quite impressed with the glut of information they are willing to provide. They have quite a bit of money from the initial raising to do so, and they’re not wasting it by being evasive and useless. They’ve done a great job.
Year 1 had a problem with leakage.
Year 2, I added a twist in the wires. I now judge how much to open the Frame by watching and maintaining an air pocket at the top of the extraction tube. Typically that can be 20% at the ends, but can be less in the middle of the frame - it all depends on the air pocket. I’ve had no leakage this year, albeit I have to be slightly more patient 
Tip: When reconstructing the FlowFrame I saw Cedar using webbing rather than string or rope. I now use a sail-tie which is perfect for the job.
There’s a knack to re-fitting the leaves, but its not too difficult.
Good luck
This looks like a neat idea. I would like to see several other views of your setup with any descriptions you could provide.
I did something much less elegant, but it worked well. I have a 12 x 17" Calphalon Baking Tray. I put an empty brood box in this, so that the box was resting across the long edge of the rim. I put the Flow super on top of the empty box. The height was perfect for draining into a 2 quart jar. A second baking tray caught any drips from the rear. A strip of foil over the edge of the two trays made a sort of seam to divert the honey into the trays. The nice thing was that the tray tilted the super to 5.5 degrees, pretty close to the tilt recommended by Flow.
Here is my simple drip tray system:
It caught 50ml of honey from 6 frames.
There are two excellent videos on todays FacebooK Flow Hive Beeking by Sara Ponikvar. I hope this link takes
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1611910632374007/?multi_permalinks=2007222349509498%2C2007211229510610%2C2007018699529863¬if_t=group_activity¬if_id=1503628195703185
Hi Dan, & @Webclan I put that comment in the wrong context. It was when the campaign first started that enthusiastic people in social media were making those claims (not the flow team). Particularly on this forum. “The old died in the wool beekeepers just go blah, blah, blah”.
Hi @Semaphore, thumbs up from me for the success you’re enjoying with your flow hives. Particularly that you are helping others to get started & willing to loan them your extractor.
cheers
PS, if your extractor comes back coupled with a little gratuity, that’s always good:)
PPS @Semaphore, it occurred to to me that I should point out that lending out gear like extractors does have it’s risks. You never know what nasties they could return with. Just an afterthought.
I guess that risk goes both ways.
Cheers
I hadn’t thought of that- I am kind of this guys ‘mentor’ I caught a swarm in his wall and housed it in his yard- then it swarmed again- and he caught the second swarm so now has two hives. Last year he didn’t harvest anything- but this year those hives should build up pretty fast. The extractor is all stainless steel- I guess it wouldn’t be too hard to wash it with bleach if I had to? Touch wood I haven’t yet heard of a recent case of AFB here in Adelaide.
Hi Ronald,
I’m sorry to hear you have been having such bad leaking with your Flow Frames.
I have notified our Flow customer service team so that we can follow-up with you personally on this issue.
They will be in touch on Monday with some more information and to work with you to resolve this issue.
Thanks for your patience.
Newbee here. I’m about to harvest for the first time and for the life of me can’t find any info on how to get all the bees out of the flowhive. Could someone do a video for the likes of us?
Thanks
Why do you want to get them out? Are you going to remove the Flow super? If you are just harvesting, you can leave the bees in the super.
If you absolutely must get the bees out, then you need to put a bee escape under the super. Your profile doesn’t say where in the world you are, but if you give us a clue, we may be able to suggest what kind of bee escapes are available in your area.
If you’re wanting to harvest inside where it’s comfortable you could just have a spare deep hive body and transfer the frames into it.
I am replying Sunday evening 8/27 at 8:18 PM. It is probably AM in Aus at this time.
We had a little bit of leakage with some - and none with others of our six flow frames, last year.
This year, we have not been able to harvest our -currently- two sets of 6 flow frames, unfortunately.
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I had a felling there was a hidden motivation behind your snarky rude comment to me…
Just as you didn’t read what I actually wrote- You obviously haven’t read or examined any of these patents closely and therefore you have no idea what you are talking about.
Either that or you are being deliberately misleading…
That Spanish patent is significantly different than the multiple flow patents in many ways - and the TapComb product is a blatant infringement of flow IP. There is no evidence the Spanish frames were ever manufactured- let alone that they worked.
To accuse flow of simply copying them is plain wrong- as wrong as CrapComb’s demonstrably false claim to be ‘the first harvest system ever where the cell cappings are not broken’.
Here is a photo of a frame I harvested last month- it’s from a few days after the harvest. The bees have chewed off most of the capping- but you can clearly see the sections they haven’t touched yet with the capping completely intact:
