I have been interested in beekeeping for a long time. A couple of years ago I purchased Beekeeping For Dummies and also enrolled in a community course at Utah Valley University. Unfortunately, I ended up not pursuing beekeeping that year because we were in the middle of starting a pharmacy and life was too crazy.  In early 2015 I saw a Indiegogo kickstarter video about a new beehive called FlowHive that allowed you to harvest the honey without disturbing the bees. I was intrigued and decided it was time to stop reading and start doing beekeeping. We homeschool our kids so we also thought this would be an amazing educational experience. The hive comes complete with windows to look in the sides and back.

Here is the video:

We ordered the hive from Flow and the shipment came in late January. We put it all together and are anxiously awaiting our bees to arrive at then end of April 2016.

We ordered Italian bees from Knight Family Honey a local company. We have purchased honey from Knight’s at the ThanksgivingPoint farmer’s market in the past.  Lucky for me Knights also offer an introductory course so I can learn how to properly care for the bees and where to place them in my yard etc. Anytime you are starting a new hobby it helps to have a mentor.

Flow Hive assembled but not stained.

My boys helped me get everything assembled in the garage.

(Above) My daughter even got in on the assembly action.

After we assembled our hive we went to work staining it. The finished product looks awesome.

Staining the hive in the backyard.

Good branding

Nice touch!

The Flow company is amazing. I was amazed at all the extra touches Flow added to make it an experience and not just a product. From their branding on the hive, to engraving “Flow Founding Supporter 2015” on one of the doors, to their included instruction manuals, flyers and free beekeeping hat they have been a great company to work with. They act like they have been doing this for decades with their refined touches.

Very good branding and personalization.

Unexpected gift of a Flow hat with bee net.

Here is the stained beehives with the special Flow inserts.

Those Flow frames are where the magic occurs.  Watch the video at the top of the post to see the magic.

I will post again after my classes at the end of this week.