turning the flow hive key ..

That is cool Rigoberto !  So I have never been up close to one of these, can you explain a little more about how they work?

What is the "key"? is it a valve or something?

Why are they getting a bad rep ?  

There are several videos on youtube.  This one is a good demonstration on how they work.  

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryWC92NT2Eo

Frames of the flow modules are made of plastic.  Traditional beekeepers believe that this taints the honey and is not a "natural" way for bees to collect honey.

There were problems with quality control during initial startup.  The concept was developed by a father/son team in Australia and financed by crowdfunding
....funding that quickly went way past the amount asked for.  It appears all the manufacturing problems have been cleared up.....but the controversy continues with
traditional beekeepers about the use of plastic.

Here's the video

I post Youtube urls when I am not sure that the vlogger that posted it to Youtube isn't relying on a "view count" to obtain ad revenue.

If Youtube counts the views of off-site posting of videos as part of the count, then there is no problem.  However, I am not familiar with
that part of  Youtube..  If somebody out there would enlighten me, I would appreciate the info.

R Jay wrote:I post Youtube urls when I am not sure that the vlogger that posted it to Youtube isn't relying on a "view count" to obtain ad revenue.

If Youtube counts the views of off-site posting of videos as part of the count, then there is no problem.  However, I am not familiar with
that part of  Youtube..  If somebody out there would enlighten me, I would appreciate the info.

The view count works just the same as far as I can make out, but with an embedded video about ten times more people will actually watch it.  

Thanks for the info about Youtube off-site embedding.

Last time I checked the flow-hive web site  www.honeyflow.com/  they had shipped over 30,000 orders all over the world.

Growing up in a bee-keeping family, I experienced all of the traditional methods--trying to remove frames from the hive without being stung, removing the capped wax with
"hot" knives and steam knives, running a manual extractor while bees were trying to get thru the window screens {like being on a set for a Hitchcock movie}, and the
problems of cleanup after.  Flow-hives appear to make the process of harvesting honey easier.

Can't you insert normal frames in the flow hive? I hate plastic, it breaks all the time and there is no nail repairing it.

 

Can't you insert normal frames in the flow hive? I hate plastic, it breaks all the time and there is no nail repairing it.

On the the flow-hive web site  www.honeyflow.com/,there is a forum that discusses the hives and beekeeping.  Like permies,com, all
you have to do to participate is sign up to be a member.  Any questions about the durability of the flow modules can be answered ;
there.

There is a choice of what to buy....a complete flow hive....or just the flow modules.  The flow modules were designed to fit inside standard
Langstroth supers.  There is a downloadable instruction manual in PDF format that shows how to modify Langstroth supers for both
partial and full use of modules in a super.  They have 3- and 6-frame flow modules for the 8-frame super and 4- and 7-frame flow
modules for the 10-frame super

I think they also got a bad rep because it makes it so easy and traditional beekeepers think that people with a flow-hive will a) not check their bees for health, swarming etc and b) harvest too much of the reserves the bees need for the winter.

I think both these issues are simply resolved by using the flow hive responsbily. After all, even with a traditional hive set up you could simply ignore your bees all summer then pinch all the honey they made

traditional beekeepers think that people with a flow-hive will a) not check their bees for health, swarming etc and b) harvest too much of the reserves the bees need for the winter.  

These are the same mistakes that many inexperienced traditional beekeepers make when they first start out.  The honey harvesting using the flow modules
makes that part easier--but below the queen excluder all the components are still standard traditional Langstroth, and it still requires regular inspections
needed for good hive management.

exactly

With out going into all the arguments in detail my objections to this equipment are
1 cost I could buy three or four conventional hives for the price of one flow hive super I make my own hives and could make many many more for the price of just one flow hive or even buy a 5 years supply of honey
2 not keen on plastic possibility of taint , plus none sustainable
3 concentrates everything on honey and not the bees .

David  

The short answer as to why the flow hive is terrible: http://patrick.freivald.com/2015/04/26/my-thoughts-on-the-flow-hive/

Even if you don't care about the plastic you still need to swap the combs every few years at minimum (to prevent pesticide/disease buildup) and flow hive frames are stupor expensive. I suspect they may also make a horrible mess of the inside of the hive which would encourage robbing, which is something else you don't want for lots of reasons.

anyone with hands on experience with these flow hives?