through Ross Conrad
Stewart and Cedar Anderson of Byron Bay, Australia have made historical past and are rapid changing into mythical. The daddy and son staff have invented the Go with the flow™ Hive and introduced a crowd investment marketing campaign on Indiegogo to lift the cash had to start mass manufacturing and distribution in their invention.
As this newsletter was once being written the marketing campaign, whose authentic objective was once to lift $70,000, had raised over six million greenbacks and contributions have been nonetheless rolling in. With many days left of their 45-day fundraising marketing campaign, Stewart and Cedar are disproving the long-held trust that one won’t ever strike it wealthy via beekeeping. In line with a Go with the flow Hive media free up, “the Go with the flow Hive Indiegogo marketing campaign is essentially the most a hit crowd investment undertaking ever introduced out of doors the U.S., with contributions from 116 nations.” In buck worth, the U.S. is through a long way the biggest contributor adopted through Australia, Canada, and the U.Okay. Because of this, plans are afoot to determine a Go with the flow Hive production facility within the U.S. as a way to scale back delivery prices to the Northern hemisphere.
This invention is so new that apart from the inventors and a small selection of beekeepers who over the process the closing 3 years have been taken with product trying out, no one has used this harvesting way ahead of (despite the fact that by the point you learn this the primary manufacturing fashions can be in use). Thus what follows is what I’ve been in a position to be told concerning the Go with the flow Hive and my preliminary ideas at the matter with out the advantage of direct enjoy.
The Go with the flow Hive permits the beekeeper to reap honey with out opening up the hive and with minimum disturbance to the bees. The gadget makes use of a wood honey tremendous that’s the similar measurement and form to an ordinary Langstroth deep tremendous, with the exception of that it’s changed with openings going through the bottom of the hive reverse the hive front. This Go with the flow Hive field holds a number of Go with the flow™ frames that whilst wider, are an identical in peak and period to the usual Langstroth body. Every Go with the flow body consists of totally drawn plastic comb with deep cells that the bees fill with honey, and cap. A hose is hooked up to the bottom of the Go with the flow Hive body this is uncovered through the outlet within the aspect of the tremendous and a dishonest steel rod is inserted into the highest of the body. When the rod is became (like a faucet), it forces the 2 facets of the Go with the flow body to transport reasonably within the heart, permitting the honey within the cells to run down throughout the channels which are created, and out alongside a trough on the backside of the body resulting in the hose. Merely insert the opposite finish of the hose into your container of selection. The drive of gravity permits the honey to glide out of the tip of the hose extraordinarily blank, getting rid of the wish to pressure or filter the bits of beeswax, propolis, pollen, bee’s legs, and so on., this is generally required when generating liquid honey through uncapping and extracting. Any tiny quantities of pollen that do occur to seek out their approach into the honey are person grains of pollen that fall off the our bodies of the bees as they cross about their industry within the hive.
Every Go with the flow body when utterly stuffed and capped through the bees is reported to carry about seven kilos of honey.
Every Go with the flow body when utterly stuffed and capped through the bees is reported to carry about seven kilos of honey. Relying at the ambient temperature and the moisture content material of the honey being harvested, draining a complete Go with the flow body is reported to take as low as 20 mins to greater than two hours. The Go with the flow body most effective works when temperatures are heat sufficient for honey to glide.
As soon as the body is tired the steel rod within the higher slot of the Go with the flow body is became again to its authentic place, resetting the brush permitting the bees to uncap the empty cells and get to paintings refilling them with extra honey. A viewing window is minimize into the aspect of the Go with the flow Hive tremendous that permits the frames within to be monitored with out the will for opening up the hive. Each Go with the flow frames and standard beeswax frames of comb can also be blended in the similar honey tremendous, with the utmost of six Go with the flow frames becoming in an eight-frame honey tremendous and 7 Go with the flow frames becoming right into a 10-frame honey tremendous. On the other hand, it’s most likely that the bees will have the ability to squeeze previous same old wax combs and go out by means of the cut-out in rear of the Go with the flow Hive tremendous particularly if the tip bars aren’t complete rectangles however are milled to permit bees room to go between the tip bars of adjoining frames. This “rear front” may just make it tricky for a vulnerable hive to stay robbers at bay and may just result in defensive conduct when the Go with the flow frames are being harvested.
This invention is progressive in that it has the prospective to get rid of about 95% of the exertions generally concerned with standard honey harvesting; a procedure that calls for the elimination of honey supers, the elimination of bees from the supers, transporting the supers to an extraction website online, uncapping the brush, and extracting and filtering the honey, then returning the honey supers to the beeyard or garage house. Since there’s little disturbance to the bees within the hive when harvesting honey within the Go with the flow frames, the chance of being stung is very much decreased. That is prone to be highly regarded in South and Central The usa, and Africa the place extremely defensive bees are frequently controlled.
Go with the flow body with turning deal with in position. When became, the cells are off set
freeing the honey.
After 3 years of box trials, Go with the flow Hive upkeep seems to be minimum with the advice to scrape out burr comb from supers the similar as with same old Langstroth apparatus, and to flush out the ground channel with heat water and in all probability use a bottle brush to wash the channel on the finish of the season. Must beebread be saved in one of the most Go with the flow body cells, they don’t appear to hinder the harvesting of honey whatsoever.
Some critics of the Go with the flow hive have accused Stuart and Cedar of ripping off outdated patents that describe an identical units for simply harvesting honey from the hive. After I requested Stuart Anderson if the theory for the Go with the flow Hive got here from outdated patents that some are claiming have been used as the root for his or her invention, the solution I won was once, “No, our design is moderately other from the ones outdated patents and, in our opinion the designs in the ones patents would now not paintings. Because it came about we didn’t see the ones outdated patents ahead of we got here up with our personal design.”
As I identified within the article “Beekeeping and Era” (Bee Tradition, February 2015), there are steadily unintentional penalties, on occasion just right and on occasion now not such a lot, that include the implementation of latest applied sciences. Two possible problems that the Go with the flow Hive brings to thoughts are the larger reliance on plastic in our bee hives and the kind of philosophy or angle that this beekeeping invention would possibly foster amongst its customers.
In line with the corporate the Go with the flow body that lies on the center of the Go with the flow Hive, is “comprised of top of the range, food-grade, BPA-free plastic.” Environment apart the truth that the bees have a tendency not to like plastic, the cause of this remark is as a result of estrogenic chemical substances (comparable to BPA) present in traditional plastic merchandise were related to a litany of issues in people and animals. Scientists have tied BPA to illnesses together with bronchial asthma, most cancers, infertility, low sperm depend, genital deformity, center illness, liver issues, and ADHD. In the meantime the artificial nonsteroidal estrogen drug DES, which may be labeled as an endocrine disruptor, was once as soon as prescribed to stop miscarriages however led to weight problems, uncommon vaginal tumors, infertility, and testicular growths amongst the ones uncovered in utero. Whilst chemical substances having estrogenic process are obviously a motive for fear, plastic honey bins, plastic basis and fully-drawn plastic comb were used for plenty of many years with none noticeable detrimental affects. Critics alternatively would argue that because the quantity of floor house in a plastic comb, such because the Go with the flow body, is time and again more than the plastic in most cases discovered within the hive, there’s possible motive for fear. Serving to to allay such considerations for some alternatively, is analysis that has discovered that “honey has a possible position in decreasing BPA-induced ovarian toxicity through decreasing the morphological abnormalities of the ovarian follicles and bettering the traditional estrous cycle.”1
Different research display that present production processes that produce plastics with estrogenic process are pointless. To cite from one summary, “Virtually all commercially to be had plastic merchandise we sampled – impartial of the kind of resin, product, or retail supply – leached chemical substances having reliably detectable EA (estrogenic process), together with the ones marketed as BPA loose. In some instances, BPA-free merchandise launched chemical substances having extra EA than did BPA-containing merchandise.” The authors of the find out about conclude: “Many plastic merchandise are mischaracterized as being EA loose if extracted with just one solvent and now not uncovered to common-use stresses (microwaving, ultraviolet radiation, and/or autoclaving). On the other hand, we will be able to determine current compounds, or have advanced monomers, components, or processing brokers that don’t have any detectable EA and feature an identical prices. Therefore, our information recommend that EA-free plastic merchandise uncovered to common-use stresses and extracted through saline and ethanol solvents may well be cost-effectively made on a industrial scale and thereby get rid of a possible well being possibility posed through maximum lately to be had plastic merchandise that leach chemical substances having EA into meals merchandise.”2
It’s properly established that the substance royal jelly, this is vital to elevating wholesome larvae all the way through their first 3 days or so of building, and the queen this is fed royal jelly during her lifestyles, reveals vulnerable estrogenic actions.3,4,5 Given the obvious significance of this estrogenic process in honey bee building, now not sufficient is understood about how the estrogenic compounds emitted through plastic hive parts affect the well being of the hive.
“In line with the corporate the Go with the flow body that lies on the center of the Go with the flow Hive, is “comprised of top of the range, food-grade,BPA-free plastic.”
As though the well being considerations of compounds associated with using plastic aren’t sufficient, the poisonous pollution produced all the way through plastic manufacturing and the large quantity of plastic particles this is clogging up our landfills and collecting in our seas, trapped and amassed through ocean currents is probably not helped. Sadly it’s exhausting to peer how the Go with the flow frames may well be manufactured to any extent further economically through anything else instead of plastic. After all this additionally signifies that when a hive will have to be burned because of American Foul Brood contamination, a large number of poisonous fumes shall be launched into the air and an important financial funding shall be misplaced. One has to suppose that the present value of $51-$77 consistent with body will in the end come down as manufacturing is scaled up.
The opposite primary complaint of this new gadget for harvesting honey is the prospective way of thinking that it’ll inspire in beekeepers that use the Go with the flow Hive. The benefit with which a beekeeper can track the accumulation of the Go with the flow body comb throughout the window at the aspect of the Go with the flow Hive tremendous and extract the harvestable honey from the hive with no need to boost the lid and open the hive would possibly worsen a subject this is already a priority in beekeeping circles: beekeepers who don’t frequently investigate cross-check their colonies and stay tabs at the well being and well-being of the hive.
Whilst the Go with the flow Hive window may give one a coarse concept of ways rapid the Go with the flow Hive honey tremendous is filling up, it does now not supply a window into the brood nest probably combating the well timed analysis of queen problems or illnesses. This can be a easy undeniable fact that until a beekeeper is aware of what’s going on within the hive, they’re not likely in an effort to intrude at the bees behalf in a well timed type when hassle rears its head.
For beekeepers within the northern areas of North The usa, overwintering is a big problem. Probably the most number one necessities for a hit wintering is an ok retailer of honey. Except beekeepers take care to make sure that every hive has stuffed sufficient honey supers ahead of putting in the Go with the flow Hive tremendous at the colony, the convenience with which the honey can also be harvested may just simply lead to overharvesting and colonies that both starve all the way through iciness, or require a large number of feeding as a way to be sure their survival. If the bees are fed a man-made nutrition instead of their herbal nutrition of honey and pollen, we now know that the whole well being of the colony’s immune gadget is prone to endure making the colony extra susceptible to illness.
The inverse of this example is also simply as disastrous. Conscientious beekeepers who modulate their impulse to reap and depart complete Go with the flow frames on their colony as a way to be sure the hive could have numerous honey for Wintry weather would possibly to find that the considerably deeper cells of the Go with the flow frames so conducive to ample nectar and honey garage, aren’t the intensity of cellular this is favorable for brood rearing. Because of this, leaving supers of Go with the flow frames stuffed with honey at the hive in chilly climates would possibly lead to vulnerable hives in Spring and larger queen problems.
Some other people have identified that this invention turns out to glide from the similar extractive mindset that is a component and parcel of our capitalistic option to international governance. Given capitalism’s present trail of by no means finishing enlargement based totally totally on useful resource extraction to the detriment of planetary well being, one can’t lend a hand however be involved that the convenience with which we will be able to now take honey from the bees would possibly in a similar way lead to not their salvation, however in some instances would possibly hasten their dying.
Beekeepers shall be challenged to battle the temptation to overharvest and rededicate themselves to right kind hive stewardship based totally upon sound beekeeping rules and an apicultural ethic that doesn’t position their wishes above the wishes of the bees.
Judging from the feedback at the Indiegogo marketing campaign website online, Go with the flow™ era is stimulating a brand new wave of other people getting taken with beekeeping, and has rekindled the spirit in those that gave up beekeeping up to now. Make no mistake, any more everybody who leads beekeeping workshops and teaches beekeeping categories will have to make an effort to develop into a minimum of accustomed to the Go with the flow Hive as a way to knowledgeably resolution the questions that may inevitably get up. Lecturers must be ready to provide recommendation comparable to: in case you are eager about bee stings you must almost certainly nonetheless put on a veil, gloves, and so on., you’re going to nonetheless wish to do brood inspections, handle mites and illnesses, hive beetles, wax moths, swarming, and the entire leisure. Except your bees are situated in a heat desolate tract, semi-arid or tropical local weather comparable to happens during maximum of Australia and the bees have forage to be had via lots of the 12 months, the Go with the flow frames must now not be left on overwintering hives lest the cluster transfer up onto the frames of honey however are avoided from elevating wholesome brood within the further deep cells of the brush (as discussed above the plastic honey cells within the Go with the flow body are further deep which is okay for honey garage, however now not conducive to right kind egg laying through the queen.
Some other people have identified that this invention turns out to glide from the similar extractive mindset that is a component and parcel of our capitalistic option to international governance.Moreover, the build-up of larval skins within the plastic cells used for brood rearing would possibly in the end motive issues of the facility of the honey to glide throughout the channels correctly when the body is activated.)
The Go with the flow Hive seems to be the largest technological leap forward in hive design in properly over 150 years. It’s prone to take a minimum of a number of extra years of use in all method of climates and geographic places to ensure that beekeepers to learn to superb music the Go with the flow Hive advantages and mitigate any of its detrimental attributes. With over 12,000 beekeepers from all over the world putting pre-orders via Indiegogo, the Go with the flow Hive has now not simply captured the creativeness of beekeepers around the world, it’s poised to have a big affect on beekeeping normally. Whether or not it proves to be of long-term worth to the well being of the hive and the economics of the beekeeping business, or just leads to a momentary bubble… time will inform.
Ross Conrad is the writer of Herbal Beekeeping: Natural Approaches to Fashionable Apiculture, second Version.