May I just mention, without sounding condescending, that the people on this forum truly are the nicest and most patient I’ve come across on any discussion site. What a wealth of knowledge! Thanks.
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Not true. Not easy. Easier to harvest than traditional, but still hard work. If you don’t want to work hard, you shouldn’t keep bees - they will likely die very quickly if that is your approach. They need regular inspection and probably treatment for diseases like varroa - I suspect that is what killed your grandfather’s bees. You also need to prevent swarming if you don’t want to lose your hive. If you want to make easy money, don’t even think about keeping bees. It will never be easy money.
Just to give you an idea, an “average” hive can produce from 40-80lb per year of honey. Some years you will get none at all. Other years you may get more. Australian hives regularly produce more - they have nectar most of the year. I have no idea what the nectar flow is like in Georgia - you will have to ask your grandfather, or other local beekeepers. So if you you get 40lb of honey per year, and you can sell it for a good price in the USA (say $10 per jar), you might make US $400 per year per hive. But you will still have the cost of wax foundation, bee medications, buying/replacing bees or queens and all of that glassware and labels to help sell your honey. Pricing may be VERY different in Georgia - it is up to you to research the pricing of everything and see if you can make a viable business plan.
I wish you luck, but please don’t choose to work with bees if you aren’t willing to work hard. 
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Once you know about beekeeping in your country you can start to work out how much you might be able to make. You need to ask: How much honey does a normal hive produce in georgia? How much does honey sell for? What are your expenses? Etc. The best way to find answers to these questions is to ask your local beekeepers- and to start beekeeping. Only then can you work out if you can make a business from it.
The best thing to do is to get at least one beehive- preferably two- and to start to learn. There is no need to get flow frames at the beginning. Flow frames to not make beekeeping easier- they make harvesting a little easier- that is all. To start out you do not need to spend too much money if you use standard beehives like your grandpa. You can always add flow frames to them if you decide you want to continue.
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When I was start beekeeping, I think just like what you think. When Flow was launch at 2015, I was very enthusiast and want to start beekeeping, my motivation at first? Honey & Money, producing by this insect. Why? look I don’t know anything about bees, what I know is this insect will produce honey. I don’t know about pest & diseases, about off season (when you HAVE to feed your bees), about bees stock that I bought, and also about bees especially in my country. Just have some money to start beekeeping, and want to become commercial beekeeper.
But after a while, I see that’s a “wrong” motivation, beekeeping is not child plays, also it’s not honey producing machine. Flow Hive simply is a invention that help honey harvest easier than before, that’s what the inventors truly intention, you can see this in some of Flow Video. Even Cedar (The Flow Inventor) himself said you still have to check the hive, when you bought Flow.
In my country (Indonesia) we don’t have winter, but when some peoples said it’s good news, I said NO! Why? Because the queen still lay eggs, and when there were an eggs, colonies will need more food. You will need to feed, feed, and feed, and it’s not cheap. Generally beekeepers in my country said we will harvest about 14 kg/year (When we have good seasons). Honey you harvest can be sell about $10 - 20/ kg, of course more if you retailing. But we still have to pay for colonies, for supplement, for equipment, for wax & other things, sometimes for rent bee yard, especially for treatment against varroa (This little red devils, it’s tough one), not to mention the cost for packaging and selling.
The variable cost of beekeeping, it’s not small, moreover when you bought Flow, it will dramatically increase the fix cost. My suggestion, start beekeeping for 1-2 years, keeps at least 2 hives but no more than 10, either conventional vs conventional, or conventional vs Flow. Try to read as much beekeeping books, talk with many beekeepers as you can, you can even try to help them, so you will know many beekeeping perspectives. After that you can evaluate your progress, then you decide whether “To Bee Or Not To Bee”. Hopeful after years passed, we still see you here mate!
Cheers!
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@michang Great post, and good honesty. And very good advice.
@Dawn_SD Great explanation. Time well spent I think
@ToQcHista As others have said, if you are driven by a desire for easy money beekeeping is not a viable business consideration for you. It is important to realise that bees are not machines. Bees are, obviously, living creatures. When we are managing a colony to function in a way that WE want we need to be responsible for helping care for and monitor the overall health of the bees. If you think of bees like a factory of people the manager has to help ensure the health and motivation of his workforce. For people, this is achieved via a wage/salary so they can care for themselves. For bees, we have to actively be involved inspecting the general health of the colony and helping to control pests and diseases - it’s not so easy for bees to pickup a phone and call the local doctor
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Just one more thing…
Twelve tons of honey from 50 hives!!! Wow, he is a miracle-worker! Was that just one year? He should patent his methods. 
So, let’s think about this. If we are talking metric tonnes, that is 12,000 kg of honey from 50 hives. That is 240 kg honey per hive, or about 530 pounds of honey per hive in a year. That is truly astounding! In a year? Even @JeffH doesn’t get that much, and his Australian hives are huge producers. I don’t know of any Flow hive that could match that kind of production. You should learn your Grandfather’s method and teach it to the world - that would make you a lot of money! 
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I didn’t comment on that part- my eyebrow just raised a bit… But- it isn’t impossible- just highly improbable. A while back I googled ‘most honey ever produced by single hive’ something I guess more than one beekeeper has googled- this is what I found:
It’s an interesting read- whilst Ormond did very well- it seems Australia has for a long time been a great honey producing nation:
"According to Bill Winner, Beekeeper Services Manager, Capilano Honey Company, “We can confirm the average production of 346 kilograms (762 lbs) per hive from 460 hives… The beekeeper’s name was Bob Smith from Manjimup, Western Australia. The honey was Karri. The year was 1954. "
346 x 460 = 159,160 Kilograms! Having driven through the amzing giant Karri tree forests around manjimup- I think I can believe the claim. It is really an amazing place:
159 tonnes of honey!
For myself- I am about 12 months in- have invested maybe $5000 AUD- and have produced around 25 kg’s! Theres still a few months left in the season though! Hope springs eternal.
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@Dawn_SD @Semaphore I did a workshop at UWA and the researcher there mentioned that they’d seen hives with a single brood box and 2 supers producing 180-200+kg’s of honey in a single season when the Jarrah and Red Gums are in bloom (and these weren’t being actively managed for honey production; they were being managed for research purposes). Here in WA, based on anecdote (certainly not experience…yet) if you’ve got enough Jarrah or Red Gum around you and a good nectar flow is on you will be filling two supers every 2wks. I should point out this IS NOT the norm for most urban beekeepers, but as we’ve seen with other comments in different threads there are hobbyist beekeepers getting a single flow super filled in about 2.5wks here…
i hear yesterday that Georgia bees nectar is best, such that other country haven’t ;
georgia bees nectar is big;
what i seeing, it is little, as i said, my grandfather did 12 ton honey per summer;
here are 2lb honey cost about is 5$ but here 5$ is much money, cuz my country currently is GEL , 1USD is 2.48GEL : here are everything cheap ;
but when i will have much standart hives i can’t control all, i should take care bees and extract honey, it is require times;
i know im getting it, that i should take care of the bees, it is necessary but im trying to get easy extract honey with flow hive;
i want less work, i get it that i take care of the bees, it is necessary; care isn’t problem with me; i just want less work , i like flow hive 
why?[quote=“Dawn_SD, post:23, topic:10269”]
Just to give you an idea, an “average” hive can produce from 40-80lb per year of honey.
[/quote]
do you mean per hive produce 40-80lb per year ? per summer ?
please answer me
as i know, 50 beekeeper until 12 ton ;
it is depend on quality, 2lb 5$ maybe 8$
if you choose standart hives then need is buy honeycomb, it is need change; flow hive case it doesn’t need change ;
but my grandfa doing candle used honeycomb ;
is this main problem ? yeah first i have to buy standart hive but i aproach big bussines, 100 flow hive, i can’t control 100 or 50 standart hive;
do you mean per hive ? as though it is little;
i want ask you, doesn’t exist any drug or like that for protect bees to worms ?
yea i know that; yea he did per summer 3 month ; here is cold winter and heat summer, mountain place is normal climate; mountain place producting good honey;
he is apiculture about 20 years more also has eyesight problem; (
as i said, Georgia bees has most big nectar; what is i hear here is that;
but he twelve tones honey didn;t sold 6 000$ more , here are bad cost of honey;
but when my grandfather was honey factory for surrender, first honey factory manager see honey quality and he was wonder , and said it is most quality honey;
but granfather still selling honey than surrender;
i have took photo, where my granfa doing honey, it place is really good;
Hi Tornike,
The question you are asking about starting a business with Flow Frames / Flow Hive is a very personal and in depth question you are asking.
You need to do a lot of research into what you need to do to take care of bees. Your grandfather was a beekeeper - you need to do everything he did - and you might have bees that die too.
Harvesting is different.
Flow Frames - honey flows straight out of the hive.
Traditional - you will have to cut, spin, etc.
You need to research into the cost factors, e.g. time spent harvesting traditionaly, compared to the investment in Flow. This has been talked about in other posts.
There is no guarantee of honey production, or the quantity of honey produced, etc - it is like anything that is living - it can live and it can die, and is subject to local conditions, how you care for your bees, etc., etc., etc., etc.
Things to start with - join your local bee club
talk to your grandfather about everything involved, costs vs costs
Watch the beginner beekeeping videos - https://www.honeyflow.com/gallery-videos/meet-the-beekeeper-videos/p/225
Read through beginner beekeeping basics - http://forum.honeyflow.com/c/beekeeping-basics
Look at the recommended books and videos - http://forum.honeyflow.com/c/bee-websites-forums-books
Read through the faqs - https://www.honeyflow.com/faqs/p/22
https://www.honeyflow.com/faqs/p/22?tag=24
I’m sorry, but there is no short answer for yoru question, and lots of your own personal research needs to go into this, like any investment.
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hi;
as i know, flow hive has plastic honeycomb and how to take care of the bees ?
when im trying to check my bees, they are in plastic honeycomb, i can’t see good ;
so is only one problem of flow hive that it is just expensive ?
for me better is easy ;
Do you mean the state of Georgia in USA or Georgia the country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia?
No honey in a summer may happen because you have a new hive, your hive is overrun with pests, robbers or disease, or the nectar flow fails. Like crop failures in agriculture, it happens sometimes.
I mean 40 - 80lb per year. Most of that may be during summer in most climates, but in subtropical and tropical regions, bees gather nectar all year. That is why I said “per year”. When I kept bees in the UK, our best crops were about 80lb per hive per year - last harvest in August. In California, where we now live, most beekeepers get only about 40lb per hive per year, as our very dry climate reduces the availability of nectar. You will see from the discussion above, that many Australians see much higher honey yields. It is all very climate-dependent and the only way to know how much honey you can expect from your Flow hive, is to ask how much honey local beekeepers get from their traditional hives. The Flow hive may give you slightly more honey than a traditional hive (because the bees don’t have to make so much wax), but your best estimate of harvest quantity will be from the traditional beekeepers around you.
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Why my case is better traditional beekeeper?
If you mean for begginer of course .
what climate does need bees ?
my region is little cold and sonner .
Of course, Georgia is caucasus region , as well as azia and europe middle.
No. Let me simplify what I meant. The best way for you to guess how much honey a Flow hive will produce in your region is to ask traditional beekeepers in your region how much honey they get. We can all guess here, but none of us are based in Georgia, so it will be very approximate.
You may get a little more honey than traditional beekeepers in your region, once you have learned the skills of beekeeping. That is because the plastic comb in a Flow hive saves the bees from drawing natural comb. Natural comb costs honey for the bees to make it. However, that is a long way down the road, and you have a lot to learn first.
Bees can survive in a wide range of climates, but their honey production will vary very much between climates. You should get some books on bee biology and beekeeping - they can help to answer your questions and increase your understanding.
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+1000000
Gotta add points for tenacity though!
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2016 yars of summer my grandfa did 100 kb honey with 5 hive this only this summer.
Flow Hives are much too expensive for you and you will not get the Kg per hive your grandfather gets.
Suggestion: Forget the making money bit. Get a couple of Flow hives and learn to love and care your bees. Then think about expanding.
There are no get rich schemes here.
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i was looking for and can’t find video where is diseases get rid of the bees ;
how can i get rid diseases for bees ? is any new method or drugs ?
is anyone here who bees doesn’t died long time ?
if every case bees died at time ?