I think you should perhaps share with Stu &/or Cedar re above, that’s a lot of honey to spill. And if you’ve tried doing it in increments & is still happening, not good? Just so they are aware, may have comments, its a genuine problem.
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Thanks for letting us know about your Flow leakage problem. I have passed this onto Stu so that he can have a look at it.
Have you emailed customer support with any pictures, etc?
https://www.honeyflow.com/contact/p/3
Ok, thanks. I wasn’t sure how to attach pictures to the customer support
page, if you don’t mind, I’ll send them along to you to pass on.
Thanks,
Andrew
Not sure if many people caught the Australian Story piece, but it’s interesting watching it again after owning the Flow hive. In the video they are seen with a prototype frame multiple times. Interestingly this prototype is very different to the final product and is basically half honeycomb half reservoir (ie. the reservoir the honey drops into is half way up the frame, and much larger than the final product.)
I haven’t watched the Australian story piece again recently, and can’t think what you are referring to to be honest.
I would have to watch it again to see what you mean.
In their first prototype hive with the video of the first extraction you can see a large reservoir that the honey drips down into in the observation window. Later in the article cedar can be seen holding the prototype frame when he’s sitting in the shed.
Here are photos showing the prototype:
I am reading on but also concerned. Hope I see what happens at the end of this thread, ha this is the end of the thread ok whats up and what do I need to know? Dawn mentioned sealing the tube lip, then we have the how to open the cells, then we have the temperature. Any solids on what is done to prevent this from occurring. Thanks
There’s been heaps of discussion around this & what to do, just search honey leaking will find lots of threads 
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Just send an email to info (at) honeyflow dot com
- attach your pictures
On the contact page there is actually a section underneath the message you write which allows you to attach pictures.
We crack our flowhive to harvest the honey we have six flowhives we cracked them one at a time. when we cracked the fourth one it gushed out the bottom into the brood box! we continued to crack the next ones they worked fine.
The fourth one gushed into the brood box all the way through to the platform base
Has this happen to anyone else?
What do we do now? How do clean this up?
We don’t know if our queen survived, if not what do we do?
Some others have noticed a leak when harvesting. There are many reasons for it, for example:
- Flow tube not inserted fully or the right way up - honey can flows straight out of the lower channel back into the hive. The little lip on the end of the tube needs to be at the bottom, and be placed under the flexible plastic layer
- Frame not fully capped. The design holds the honey back behind the wax cappings. If the cells are not capped, honey flows straight out of the face of the frame, not into the collection channel.
- Hive not tilted backwards enough - needs at least a 2.5 degree back tilt when harvesting.
- Wires not tight around frames, when the key is inserted, the frames flex, and honey can then leak from gaps.
- Whole frame opened at once, rather than in sections. The channel can then fill too quickly to drain and overflows back into the hive. Many people like to open about 20% of the frame at a time, advancing the key to the next section of the same frame when the flow rate drops.
I am sure there are others, but those are the common reasons I can remember from recent posts.
Let the bees clean up the inside of the hive. Rinse down any honey on the outside and the ground with a hose to discourage robbing.
Check the hive in a week or so. If you see eggs and uncapped larvae, you still have a queen. If you see emergency queen cells, they lost her and are trying to make another - I would either let them try, or re-queen from a commercial supplier. At this time of year in the US, you can still purchase queens from reputable suppliers, so you may well be able to get them in Canada too - I would ask your local bee club if you are not sure of where to find good queens.
Please let us know how it goes! 
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Dawn,
You know I added my Flow-Super last week, right ? 
. I’ll probably pull the Flow-Super off mid September … My question: if they don’t get the cells capped … Am I looking for a Honey-Gusher too ?! Or could I sloooooely open the gates a dab at a time n MAYBE get away with it ? Hmmm, 
wow ! Untested territory here I venture to say 
. Aaaah … What the heck ! Nothing ventured n nothing GAINed … Right !!!
Oh well life has all kinds of challenges n learning curves…
Your crazy Washington buddy,
Jer
It is really distressing to see honey pouring out of the wrong place! I’m sorry this happened Summerjan.
Dawn_SD has made comprehensive points. I can add just one or two ideas.
For the first harvest we recommend just opening one frame at a time. This is because we noticed that leaks seem to be more likely the first time a Flow frame is ‘cracked’. Harvesting one at a time over say an afternoon or even a few days will minimise the possibility that the brood is flooded by several frames leaking badly.
Sometimes people fix plastic tubing to the Flow tube and bend it down to a container. In this case it is important that air can escape from the container, otherwise an airlock will stop the honey flowing and it will back up into the frames and hence leak out through the lower cells on the Flow frame.
Lastly it is important that the corflute slider is in the top slot during and immediately after harvest. This means that any honey leaks that end up on the corflute can be reached by the bees (through the mesh) and also means that the leaked honey will less readily flow out the back of the hive.
Happy Bees! Stu
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On this vid you will see exactly what happens when there is a leak inside the Flow hive.
It shows how the honey seems to burst out of the cell when the frame is opened.
To fix the leak we quickly closed the cell and reopened it again, all seemed ok the second time but it does demonstrate what is happening and possibly what happens deeper in the hive for others.
All cells were capped including the ones that burst on opening. In the vid you will see it only does it once one side has drained and then starts to drain the opposite side of the frame. This occurred on several sealed frames in this hive.
@Faroe @Stu_Anderson
Hi @Stu_Anderson can you please explain how that airlocks are formed, I don’t see how this would be possible unless the whole system is completly sealed airtight which I personnally don’t think is possible without a great deal of effort.
From my experience I have noticed that the wax capping is bursting (causing internal leakage) when the frames are being opened either quickly or slowly.
cheers Bruce
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Hi Bruce,
The airlock is formed when the tubing and container is sealed. One example
of this was a Northern Beaches beekeeper who channelled six pipes into one
lidded bucket. The 25mm tubing fitted the Flow tube tightly and poked
through tight holes in the bucket and its lid was airtight. There was no
doubt that the honey could not flow down the tubing because the air
pressure quickly built up in the bucket.
Having said this - you are right - leaks can happen for other reasons than
airlocks. In your video it looks like there was a blockage at the base of
one of the vertical channels - you can see that the honey has not drained
on that side of the clear panel. I don’t know what the blockage was - could
be wax, a pollen plug…
All the best, Stu
Stu Anderson
BeeInventive / Honeyflow
+61 429 135 218
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Hi Stu,
I use this manifold system which I made and seems to work fine, however the holes into the bucket are loose fitting and the bucket is 25ltr which allows for the air expansion I guess. Plus the air rises expelling into the empty cells once the frame is empty.
cheers
Bruce
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Impressive manifold!
I would watch the level of honey in the window around the tube insert hole
while harvesting. You can see when the honey level goes above the height of
the trough walls, therefore risking some leakage via the lower cells.
We are about to make a manifold which has elbows pointing down immediately
next to the edge of the box, therefore getting the honey away, out of the
horizontal area of the tube as quickly as possible.
All the best, Stu
Stu Anderson
BeeInventive / Honeyflow
3 Likes
Hello there Stu,
any idea on when this will be available? Also will it be adjustable to fit any number of frames? This year I will have hives with 3, 4 and 6 flow frames per hive. I need a manifold I can use on all of them. I was thinking a system of interlocking elbows, t junctions and x junctions made of the same clear light weight material as the extraction tubes would be great. If they fit tight maybe you wouldn’t need to have o-ring seals… It would also be good if you could have two outlets if you wanted like the manifold above- to help the honey flow faster and stop it backing up in the tube. We have taken to cracking our frames in increments to prevent leaks- without a manifold this means the process can take several hours… Whilst the bees don’t get that bothered it really is preferable to have a completely enclosed extraction process at the rear of the hive- a good manifold is the last little piece to make a flow hive complete…
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