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Unwrap the secret
world of bees
Meet The Colony this Holiday Season and discover our forage recommendations plus some sweet savings.
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
Hurry, stock is limited and gift giving shipping deadline is 10th December
Unwrap the secret
world of bees
Meet the members of the hive this holliday season
Meet The Colony this Holiday Season and discover our forage recommendations plus some sweet savings.
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
Bee Organised and get your perfect gift early this year 🐝 🎁 😊
Stock is limited – order before 10th December to avoid disappointment
Our Premium hive, now with a bundle saving
Perfect for beginners or experienced beekeepers, our limited edition Holiday Season Bundle includes everything you need to get started! Featuring our best-selling Flow Hive 2 Cedar 6 Frame, organic beekeeper’s suit, stainless steel smoker, goatskin gloves, a J-Hive tool and Flow Veil, PLUS an incredible saving of $143!
The Ultimate in Bee suits
Make sure your loved ones feel secure with our range of premium Beekeeping Suits. Choose from Organic Cotton Adult, Kids or Toddler Suits, or our cool 3-layer Ventilated Mesh Suits & Jackets. Includes Goatskin gloves and a J-hive Tool.
Perfect for new and experienced beekeepers.
For the love of honeycomb
Our entry level hive combines Flow’s revolutionary easy honey harvesting technology, with traditional frames in the super, allowing you to collect both fresh honeycomb and raw unprocessed honey straight from the hive.
A wonderful hive for both beginners and experienced beekeepers at AN AMAZING PRICE.
The Ultimate in Bee suits
Bee prepared with our highest grade, unbleached, GOTS certified organic cotton beekeeper suit – perfect for new and experienced beekeepers.
The Gift of Knowledge
Help your favourite budding beekeeper discover the fascinating world of bees with a subscription to our online membership course – TheBeekeeper.org.
They can learn in their own time with high-quality videos explaining everything they need to know to feel confident looking after bees. Choose from a monthly or yearly subscription, PLUS they’ll receive the first month FREE.
Meet the members of the hive
The Forager Bee
The Forager is possibly the most recognisable bee in the colony.
Usually over 21 days old, her duties shift to tasks outside the hive, mainly collecting pollen, nectar, water and resin. She works in response to the needs of the colony, and has incredible communication and navigation skills.
She can visit up to 5 thousand flowers in a single day, yet in her lifetime, will only create 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey!
She can fly at an average speed of 15 miles (24 km) per hour, can travel up to 6 miles (10 kms) from her hive in search of forage and is capable of carrying large loads of nectar and pollen equalling her own body weight! How efficient is that :)
The Guard Bee
The guard bee is tasked with protecting the colony. The small percentage of bees who become guards are aged between 7-22 days old.
She distinguishes between normal activity and real threats, and quickly calls for assistance with her alarm pheromone if needed.
She can be found standing at the hive entrance on her back four legs with her front legs raised, inspecting every bee who enters the hive. Members of her colony can be easily recognised by their odor and will be admitted, along with any drones. She’ll also welcome any bee approaching with a load of nectar or pollen – happy to accept a free gift of food from a bee entering the wrong hive.
On the lookout for intruders – robbers from another colony, or predators large or small – a strong colony usually has ten to twenty guard bees patrolling the entrance of the hive.
The Comb Architect Bee
The Architect is responsible for building honeycomb – created from perfect hexagons which, of all possible structures, use the least amount of wax to yield the maximum amount of space and strength. Honeycomb weighing 100g can support up to 4kg of honey!
Around 10 days old, she develops special wax glands under her abdomen from which she secretes liquified wax. This hardens into small flakes when exposed to the air. Using her hind legs she passes it to her mandibles where it’s mixed with saliva to make it malleable for creating comb. The wax producing gland converts sugar from honey to create the wax – it’s estimated that it takes around 6 lbs of honey (2.72kg) to make 1 lbs (0.45kg) of wax.
When creating fresh comb or repairing old comb, she’ll link together with other architects – leg to leg – to create a bridge or bee web. Her six legs have hooks, which she uses to hold onto another bee’s hooks, like holding hands, and create a delicate chain. This is called festooning.
The Queen Bee
The Queen bee is the most important member of the colony. She is solely responsible for reproduction and is capable of laying 2,000 eggs per day!
Her unique pheromones reassure the colony that she is alive and well, play an important role in protecting the hive and are used as a homing signal for foragers.
The queen’s signal also helps to create a social hierarchy within the colony. It promotes working together and stimulates activities such as cleaning, building, guarding, foraging, and brood feeding. It also prevents queen rearing and inhibits worker reproduction.
If the queen is old, sick or dies, resulting in low pheromonal signal, the workers are triggered to rear new queens from young brood within 12–24 hours.
The Drone Bee
The Drone is a male bee, whose only real role is to mate with a queen. But not the queen from his colony.
Characterised by a large body and eyes twice the size of a worker bee, drones are raised for mating in spring and die off or are ejected from the hive in autumn.
He does not forage, construct comb, or perform any other helpful function within the hive, except on occasion when he might fan his wings to help cool the hive – he is mostly a drain on resources.
In spring, he will leave the hive during the day to hang out at drone congregation areas, in hopes of discovering a virgin queen on her mating flight. If he is lucky enough to mate, he will not survive…
The Queen’s Attendant
The Queen’s Attendant is part of a special entourage who always accompany her royal highness.
A worker bee who is part of the royal court, she is vital to the health and survival of the queen, who is incapable of taking care of her own basic needs. She is responsible for cleaning, grooming, carrying her waste and tending to her every need.
She even helps to predigest the Queen’s food, as she doesn't have the correct anatomy to do this for herself, which she then feeds to her. This leaves the queen plenty of time to spend on the activity that she was created for – laying eggs…
Harvesting honey has never been easier
Invented by father-son duo Stuart and Cedar Anderson, beekeeping used to require lots of space, time, and additional expensive processing equipment – but not any more.
How we give back to pollinators who help provide the abundance we enjoy over the holiday season
Flow Native Seed Grant
Flow is funding Pollinator Partnership’s Bee Friendly Farming project which provides up to 3 pounds of seed to 50 small-scale farms across the USA (Coming soon to AU)
Pollinator house
Created using salvaged Flow Hive 2 timber offcuts and sustainably sourced bamboo, 100% of profits raised from this product are donated to support pollinator advocacy, protection and education.
Pollinator count
Supported a world-first initiative, The World Bee Count. Counting bees is one of the first steps towards understanding the reasons for their alarming decline and ultimately reversing it.
Community support
We’ve provided donations, discounts and support to a wide variety of community groups, NGOs, education providers and disaster affected commercial beekeepers around the world.
Don’t miss our limited edition Holiday Season Bundle
Save on our best-selling premium Flow Hive 2 Cedar 6 Frame, bundled with essential safety gear including an organic beekeeper’s suit, stainless steel smoker, goatskin gloves, a J-Hive tool and Flow Veil, PLUS an incredible saving of $143!
Hurry – stock is limited and our holiday season shipping deadline is fast approaching! Get your order in by 10 December to avoid disappointment.