Starting a Flow Hive in Pacific Northwest

Flow Hive
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I am a new beekeeper in Woodinvlle, WA (near Seattle). Upon purchasing a flow hive I was told by all of my local beekeepers that flow hives do not work here, which is making me quite anxious. I know this topic has been brought up before, but most are pretty old posts, and I have reached out to @Gerald_Nickel recommended by a few past posts, but I don’t think he is active on this forum anymore. Wanted to see if there are any active flow hive Pacific Northwest beekeepers out there who have been successful with flow hives and can provide me with some support and guidance for my first year. Thank you!

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Hi there Sherry and welcome! I’m not local to you so unfortunately I can’t give the most specific advice, like when your nectar flow starts, but as you’ll read in Gerald’s many wonderful posts, Flow hives certainly do work in your area! I miss Gerald, he was so encouraging to newbeeks, including me when I started out :purple_heart:

What I can tell you as a beek in PA where we have a shorter nectar flow than in the southern hemisphere and in southern states in the US, there are some adjustments to make that are simple and common-sense for the bees’ sake:

  1. In any region with nectar dearth due to cold weather, we can’t leave the Flow super on all year round. Here in PA I remove mine by mid August, occasionally early September if there is a good late summer crop coming in. Timing in your area might differ, but not by much.
  2. Placing the super on in spring has to be thoughtfully timed according to colony health, strength, temps, and nectar flow. Many beeks have put theirs on too early, making it difficult for bees to defend and warm the space which can lead to bad health outcomes. The same thing is a concern for regular supering, but Flow supers are much bigger so more challenging.
  3. Most of the time, your first season of beekeeping will not be conducive to a Flow harvest. This is because your colony might not get established in time to grow enough to then lay in the sizable stores needed to fill all those big Flow frames. As a newbeek, your learning curve is already very steep, so it’s best to focus on the basics at first anyway.
  4. When you place a brand new Flow super on a hive, even when the above boxes are checked, the cells have to be waxed up before they’re ready to hold any nectar. Wax-making itself requires nectar, so much of the first season’s flow will be absorbed by this important task. The good news is that it will be primed and ready to go for the following season, given proper storage over winter!
  5. Flow supers need to be stored with care over the months they aren’t in use and off the hive, just as empty comb frames would be to keep them safe from pests and mildew.

Until I gained confidence as a Flow beek I was pretty circumspect when I talked to other local beeks because some have formed quite negative opinions of the Flow, that are based on the bad press by US users expecting it to work exactly like it does in subtropical Australia :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:. To be fair, some of the failures were more to do with those within the multitudes of people deciding to try beekeeping when Flow launched who expected the whole thing to be “easy”, when in fact Flow’s actual point is making harvesting easy.

So, when you interact with local beeks - which you definitely should in order to learn and build community in this wonderful hobby! - keep your questions to basic beekeeping, and ask your Flow related ones here :wink:.

Good luck and keep us posted on how you go! :cherry_blossom::honeybee:

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