Auto flow

General Discussion of Diary Posts and Questions on Beekeeping Matters
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Kirby
Posts: 1
Joined: June 22nd, 2017, 4:53 pm

Auto flow

Unread post by Kirby »

I've been charged with keeping the bees again and being mildly allergic to the occasional sting (a dab of cortisone does it well) and would rather not drive hours to rent a honey extractor, is the 'auto flow' setup worthwhile and is there something available at a reasonable price?
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BadBeeKeeper
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Posts: 144
Joined: April 2nd, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: Penobsot County, Maine

Re: Auto flow

Unread post by BadBeeKeeper »

You can buy a small extractor for less than half the cost of a single super of genuine 'flow' frames. The 'flow hive' will make no difference whatsoever in regard to stings, the bees still need to be managed as per usual.

The US manufacturer of the [genuine] 'flow hive' has gone bankrupt- after borrowing scads of money to pay for machinery upgrades to increase production capabilities in order to meet the initial needs of the Australian folks, there was apparently insufficient repeat business to continue to make the payments on the note. Creditors seized the facilities and shut them down. 'Flow hives' may still be available from Australia.

Some 'second hand' flow hives have become available, as well as some cheap(er) Chinese counterfeits. The Chinese fakes are poor copies with low quality, badly fitted parts and prone to breakage. If you don't know how to tell the difference, you are likely to get ripped-off for about the same amount of money that would have purchased a decent small extractor.
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