Hello Folks! ‘Putting my toes in the water’ to see if I get any nibbles from interested people in forming a bit of a local bee community gathering place on the Flow Forum for residents of SE NSW, Southern Tablelands & Canberra and surrounds. Thanks for reading and lets see where this goes!
Hi Dragonfly it’s a great idear an I would like to meet bee keepers in our area.
Cheers
Pete
I’m in Canberra. Looking forward to bees& flow.
Welcome to you both! Early beginnings yet. I wanted to start sniffing around and see who’s out there in our area.
I’m in Canberra, we are going to construct our flow hive this weekend and hopefully get some girls settled in in the next few weeks. Our existing hive swarmed last week but sadly we weren’t quick enough to catch the swar or we’d be all set to go now.
Hi there Siobhanfaire,
Thanks for dropping in! Have fun putting it all together. Please let us know of any tips, tricks or pitfalls you come across during the construction process. No need for the rest of us to reinvent the wheel once we get ours.
Will do! I think I’ll do as Doug Purdie suggests and put pre-loaded frames in rather than construct these from scratch initially, they’ll be a useful backup though!
Do you mean frames with foundation Siobhan? You will always need spare frames so don’t worry they won’t go to waste. Doug is also expecting a Flow Hive to use as an educational colony.
No I mean constructed, wired frames, putting the foundation on is the easy bit! 
I’ll be talking to the guy I got my last bees from next week so I’ll see what he suggest, but I’m thinking it’ll just be easier to transfer his frames with bees into the hive. You’re right though Rodderick I’m very pleased to have some extra frames on hand, I’ll be much better prepared if I get a swarm again!
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Well I found putting it it together easy, my job was too supply coffee to my partner. However she found it a bit more frustrating than expected just because it too a lot longer than expected. Some of the holes weren’t pre drilled so suggest you check it over and predrill it, it otherwise comes together easily. We will be moving 5 frames form our existing hive and a new queen in tomorrow. We won’t bother using the frames, we use plastic (with wax foundation) in our existing hive and we are very happy with them.
The hive is beautiful otherwise, the base cleverly sloped and good small hive beetle mesh. The only thing we aren’t happy with is the back of the base, it’s quite open and I feel as if there is a piece missing. I’m not convinced the plastic insert base will be the best for our extremes of climate either.
If there is something not right with the hive, please send an email to the Flow hive team, otherwise I can tag it here and have somebody contact you. it may simply be a piece out of place with the base.
That was my first step Rodderick, I’ve sent pictures and I’m happily awaiting their response. the plastic insert is just a matter of contemplation for us. 
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Hi. Our family just bought a Flow hive! Happy to meet with others and learn.
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Hello Dear Locals,
I was a ‘December Delivery’ for a complete 6 Flow frame (8 Frame Lang) hive set up. The complete set-up arrived last week, has been put together and now awaits oiling. I hope that others who had the same projected delivery date are also enjoying their Flow products as well?
A careful, controlled construction approach will reward the patient assembler. The contruction plans supplied are very good with the expanded component diagrams very helpful. I completed the assembly with a Phillips Head Screwdriver, a Carpenters Square, some PVA glue (I placed a dash of glue on each starter strip for each frame), 20 largish Elastic Bands (To hold the brood frames together whilst nailing/gluing), a bottle of my favourite cider and a movie on the TV.
The only quality issues I had were in relation to the location of a few of the pre-drilled pilot holes (a little off) and a few nicks and chips from the timber, especially around the ‘Handles’ - not a deal breaker for me.
*note: folks not used to using a screwdriver may well benefit from using a powered driver, drive each screw 9/10ths of the way in and then fully seat the screw by hand (to prevent over tightening/splitting the timber) - there are a lot of screws.
Let the fun begin, cheers!
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You left out CRITICAL information. What brand of cider and which movie???
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Apologies for that MASSIVE omission Sara, the cider was a double press Sommersby Apple and the movie…hmmmmm…(I WAS distracted by, you know…other things at the time)…I belive was ‘Gattaca’, starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Therman and Jude Law. If the above adit. information assists with your own contruction methodology…well then…rock on.
laughing
I would suggest West Country (England) Scrumpy, then any film will do! 
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Excellent information! I like a french dry cidre myself but am happy to entertain a good english press.
May I suggest for your viewing pleasure;
; -)
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Hi Dragonfly
i have 3 complete flow hives with 1st december delivery but have not yet got them 
i see a lot of posts on FB with there new hives but still waiting .
I really loved Lillydale cider _I believe they no longer exist. Can’t find a cider I like as much!!