Thinking if mine comes with such issues I am not even going to attempt to fix the issues…I paid too much for this product for it to come in poor quality…
Cedar Thank you and congrats on your new baby!
Perhaps FLOW should be proactive and send a global email to buyers affirming what you said here so that rather than have people here pointed out how they had to fix problems the new recipients know they should contact FLOW or BEETHINKING to get the poor quality issues resolved. Seems that probably a lot don’t spend time out here…as the original poster noted, she did not have any idea who BEE THINKING was or that there was a state side manufacturer. When you find out after the fact like this the complaint has already spread like a virus to the world wide web.
The two things that will kill the company, poor quality control and poor customer service. I don’t envy your family on such a huge start up effort and a new baby. Will be praying for your strength and wisdom.
It was nice of them to replace your parts for those issues. Having done a lot of wood working, and knowing how the hives are assembled, I am highly confident that neither of those issues would have caused any real problems down the road. The box joints used in the construction, the weight of the hive, and the propolis used by the bees will more than make up for the crack created when they drilled the pilot hole (first photo). The gouge (second photo) on the bottom board is inconsequential, it won’t cause any problems and you can’t even see it when the hive is stacked.
I felt compelled to post this reply, so that if anyone else sees these photos and wonders… “do I have to get these replaced?”, the answer is no. You will be fine.
Kudos to the Flow Hive team for going above and beyond and providing @mikecoscia replacement parts.
I am glad you have taken time to describe it much better than me. In my case they din’t wish to take it in and do anything about it except offering so send one replacement part.
The manufacturer suggested that it happened during transport.
I was so disappointed that I din’t even continue with my original intention to post more photos. This site does not allow more then one photo per post.
I appreciate your opinion, but I don’t necessarily agree. I’m sure none of my issues would effect the function of the hive and everything would be “fine”. However, I paid a premium for an item and I expect it to be free of flaws out of the box. That being said, I know things happen and I don’t blame flow. Although, I do expect them to make it right like any other reputable company.
My Flow hive cedar parts arrived a day ago, after waiting 5-6 months for (which I did not being a new business).
This was to be a birthday/Christmas present. So after looking things over as my flow frames also arrived, I decided to dry fit the box last night, hence why I looked up this topic this morning.
The box joins would not line up, some of the joints are out by 2mm, and that was the case with all sides.
Plus on closer inspection one of the box joins has a split which is about a third of the length.
I showed my wife and she found the same on the other side of the timber.
Knowing how weight can be in a super, I am not confident on the box holding together.
Plus as others have stated mine have a few knots, one of which can be pushed out.
It appears there has been no quality control on my box at all, considering the time/cost involved.
I am not very impressed!!
Take photos of the parts you are not happy with, and send them to info@honeyflow.com. They will arrange replacements ASAP, according to other forum members’ experience. Make sure you include your order number and original order e-mail address.
I have zero qualms with your expectations about the quality of the hive. I only wanted to let others know that they can use it as is with similar flaws without having to worry about premature failure.
Personally, I spent $600 for my frames and kit. By analyzing what they are charging today for the frames vs. the full hive setup, I conclude that around $300 of my $600 went to the cost of the cedar hive. $300, from what I can tell is about 2 or 3 times how much I would have paid if I bought a run of the mill hive. But, the hive is made of cedar, has a beautiful roof, flow frame modifications, and a window to view the bees. After all is said and done, I feel like I paid a $50 to $100 premium for the cedar hive.
Is a $50 to $100 premium enough to warrant flawless zero knot construction? probably not. Is it enough to expect no splits, warping, misshapen parts, etc.? Definitely.
I just finished my hive today, assembled it yesterday, yes it took some fitting, but since I have the tools and working with wood is easy for me, it was no big deal. Overall in came out as expected.
My point exactly. I don’t mind a few knots in the wood, it’s wood…wood has knots. But the splits, warping, etc…completely unacceptable. That is what quality control is for and it seems most of the issues (at least within this thread) are coming from Lancaster, PA.
Thankfully flow sent out my replacement side panel with split ends. However, I am still waiting to hear back about the ramp assembly.
As my husband and I put together the flow hive we would have spots that had a small gap. We could have worried with it but I kept telling my husband the bees would take care of it. Perfection is over rated. I had zero splits and mine came from PA.
