Thousands of people have been buzzing on social media about the latest trend in bee keeping technology: the autoflow beehive. With the alarming decline of the world’s bee population, thousands of people have begun advocating for safe bee keeping practices. And the Flow Hive, one of the most successful brands of autoflow beehives, seems like the perfect alternative to make the honey harvesting process stress-free for both bees and their keepers. But due to the hidden dangers for bees inside of these hives, they really shouldn’t be worth all of the buzz.
The Flow Hive was wildly popular, even before its initial release, raising a record-breaking $12.2 million in the first three months of the campaign. The hive has a wooden structure and is equipped with plastic tubes that allow honey and honey combs to flow freely out of the hive with the turn of a key. The Flow Hive promised to provide a completely stress-free way to remove honey from hives and leaves disturbances to bees to an absolute minimum. Conventional honey harvesting techniques involve manually removing bees from their hive, often with the use of a smoker, in order to use a heated knife to remove honey combs from the hive. But although the Flow Hive and other autoflow alternatives seem like the answer to every beekeeper’s prayers, there are a number of hidden dangers lurking inside of these hives.
Beehives are living entities and should not be substituted with plastic parts and other artificial elements. Plastic is completely unnecessary in beehives. Bees typically produce their own wax, which makes up the entire interior of the hive and provides storage for their food supplies. Plastic, unlike bees wax, does not change with the environment around it and can’t change temperatures like other elements of the hive around it. Plastic’s inability to adapt can cause major issues for bees inside the hive, as well as altering the composition of honey and even removing some medicinal qualities from it.
Not only do the artificial components of the Flow Beehive make it dangerous for bees, but it also promotes the exploitation of bees. The creators of the Flow Hive claim that their invention is the easiest, cleanest, and cheapest way to keep bees. These claims have led many individuals to become amateur beekeepers. With the elevated number of novices in the beekeeping field, many of the bees are not being properly cared for. Bees cannot be left in a plastic hive indefinitely and expected to remain healthy and productive; these expectations are just completely unrealistic.
Although the Flow Hive has done an incredible job of raising awareness for the current bee crisis, it is simply not a safe method for honey harvesting. Between plastic parts and promoting a nonchalant attitude among novice beekeepers, the Flow Hive is destined to hurt bee much more than it can help them.
