As it says in my bio i am back in Perth for a annual visit and have discovered the bee buzz. I’m very excited and have ordered the new Araucaria flow 2 to be in Samos ( a beautiful Greek Island renowned for its honey) when I arrive back in 6 weeks.
Over the last 4 weeks i have watched so many videos and followed others adventures on flow forum but would really like to see these flow hives in action. If anybody has the time to let me come and visit and share your knowledge I would be be so happy. Even if you have only one hive set up and are also new, I am happy to share your expertise.
I have joined WABA, but awaiting approval and am looking at the UWA bee keeping course starting next month, so I’m keen to get out and experience the real thing and be a lot more knowledable for my setup in Greece.
I’m living in Mt Hawthorn.
Thanks for your time
Marie
A big welcome to the forum and the really interesting world of being a bee keeper. A word of warning, ---- bee keeping is so addictive your going to get dizzy soaking up all the information. When you are back in Greece we will still be here to advise you along the way.
Cheers Marie
Hi Marie, welcome to the forum.
I was in Samos in 96, lovely place with the pebble beaches and history, had a fun time on a scooter too. 
I’m in the Perth hills and got into beekeeping thanks to Flow also. If you are up in the hills while your’e here you’re welcome to pop in to have a looksy. Unfortunately due to the fire ban and being in a high fire danger area I am unable to use smoke when inspecting so full inspections are not as frequent as I would like.
Wow Skeggley,
Thanks so much for your reply. The hills aren’t far at all.
Not many people have even heard of Samos, so nice to hear you’ve been. I am keen to see and hear whatever you have time to show me. My son and I are heading to Swan Valley on the long weekend are you near there?
We can exchange details and hopefully catch up
Hi Marie, glad you have met @skeggley. He will probably tell you that he is a relatively new beekeeper, but I think he is excellent, mature and has great judgment. You will do very well to listen to him. I am not in Australia, but I have kept bees for a few decades. 
Might I suggest that you remove your email from your message? The forum has a few bots and spammers trawling it, and it is publicly available to search engines. It is safer to private message contact info by clicking on the Forum member’s avatar, then selecting Message from the menu that appears. Just for your safety and privacy. 
Thanks Dawn
I didn’t realise you could private msg.
M
Hi Marie, I live a bit further north. I’ll send you a private message.
I would STRONGLY recommend that UWA bee keeping course if you can actually get a spot. I’ve done it and it was great.
Hi Marie,
Welcome to the forum.
I am a bit further south along the escarpment than Greg (@skeggley) who is an absolute wealth of knowledge, experience, and a good bloke.
You are welcome to come and visit our humble abode to play with the bees and look at my setups if you wish.
I have a standard vertical-flow-hive and a horizontal or long-hive designed to take flow-frames.
Standard flow-hives reduce bee disturbance in comparison to standard hives and a long-flow-hive reduces bee disturbance even more than a flow-hive. One of the many benefits of the long-hive is no lifting heavy flow-supers at all… ever 
As @Peter48 said, beekeeping can become addictive, however, I prefer to claim that in my case it is just an excuse to do a little science and engineering research. The bonus is Honey 
@Perth-Oz-Samos-Gr Terence seems to be playing down his long hive.
You might even be able to take a peek when you’re back home in Samos…!
Hi Marie (and all the other locals),
I am also new with having my 1st Flow Hive since December. Using a four frame Nuc, I still haven’t put the Flow Super on as yet, but they are working hard to fill out the remaining 4 frames. I am in the Wanneroo area and happy for you to have a look if you wish.
Kevin.
Hi Kevin
I would love to have a look as I too will be starting in May from the ground up. To see how its coming together for you would be a good start.
When is a good time for you? I’m free all week till Friday.
Cheers
Marie
Hi Terence, when you say “Standard flow-hives reduce bee disturbance in comparison to standard hives”. In light of my observations, especially in recent times, the past week in particular, I have to say that I strongly disagree with that statement.
Dear Marie,
I can be there tomorrow at some stage if convenient? Just let me know.
Kind regards,
Kevin.
Jeff your observations may be different than mine and that is fine 
I am happy for you to express your recent observations as they may help someone decide if vertical hives are for them.
I was only referring to your comment about flow hives having less disturbance on bees than traditional hives. At best: I’d say they are on par with each other. It’s becoming apparent that there is more disturbance to the bees while using flow hives than traditional hives. However that can be wholly operator dependent.
I’m not a fan of long hives for my purposes, however I can see the attraction for others.
cheers
Hey Kevin, one of the biggest mistakes in building up a hive is to give the bees too much space too soon. It is even possible that the Super is not needed till next Spring. There is heaps of advice available on the forum about when to bring a Super into use, too soon and that can cause issues and a weaker colony.
Cheers.
I totally am with you on that Jeff. Good hive management is dependent on disturbing the bees at times doing hive and brood inspections. Those checks should be done at regular intervals regardless of it being a convention hive or a Flow Hive, after all, both the brood boxes are the same and need the samecare of them.
Cheers
Hi Peter, thanks for the advice…that’s the current plan; once they have built out all the frames, and depending on when they do it, we will work out putting on the Super. There is also a much larger wild hive close by so resources are being shared…it would be appreciated if anyone can advise on who/how to remove it! Thanks.
Hey Kevin, When you want to uplad a pic you use the 7th icon from the left, the one with the arrow pointing up, then select the photo you want to show and click on it. Doing that will upload the photo.
About the swarm you want removed maybe contact a local bee group and they will help you out and appreciate getting them. It is no good to have wild colonies of bees in your areas, or anyone else’s area that is a bee keeper.
I’m pleased to pass on advice and wish the internet and this was around when I began bee keeping.
Cheers
Oh my, oh my, oh my…
I’m a newbee that has yet to put up her Flow Hive. It’s still in the box (has been for months - winter, ugh), however I’m preparing to put it together soon.
That being said, I have trawled so many YouTube videos and have seen some amazing setups - the one that constantly grabs my attention has been the horizontal hive! I admit to laying awake at night, attempting to work out how I could use Flow cassettes in a horizontal hive effectively whilst still keeping all the benefits of the original Flow Super. The ONLY idea I had that might have been acceptable, was to place the Flow cassettes in the other direction to the rest of the hive. But I was unsure if it would work. I even sketched out the only way I could think it possible to work. I’ll attach that so you can see what I (laughingly) came up with.
To know that you’ve actually incorporated the Flow cassettes into a horizontal is so exciting. I’d really love to see it. Have you a video of it that I could see please?
