How One Company Is Making It Easier Than Ever To Save The Bees

Have you ever wondered what all the fuss is over when it comes to bees? People seem to be wringing their hands over the fate of these tiny insects lately, and they may have point. Bees are dying or completely disappearing without a trace because of several factors such as Colony Collapse Disorder and pesticides. Why does this matter? Bees all around the world help pollinate hundreds of vital crops, so if they disappear, society might suddenly be saying goodbye to beloved foods and drinks like pizza, chocolate, and coffee. 

Before you prepare for the worst and start hoarding food like bars of gold, there’s something more helpful and easier you can do. Beekeepers are helping create healthy beehives to encourage the future survival of bees. Most people who want to help don't know the first thing to beekeeping or how to use the tools to maintain a hive. Until now. Stewart and Cedar Anderson are a father and son duo from Down Under who have solved that problem and created a simple solution to beekeeping: The Flow Hive.  

For the past millennia, beekeeping has generally been a tedious labor of love practiced in the countryside by professionals or hard core hobbyists. Instead of breaking apart the beehive, smoking the bees out, pulling out the frames, brushing off the lingering bees, and carefully separating the honey from the wax, the Flow Hive works by simply turning one handle. Yup! That's it. 

The Flow Hive founders saw how difficult it was to harvest honey, not just for the beekeeper but also the stress that it inflicted on the bees during the process. To solve this, the Andersons spent years creating a sophisticated frame design that safely opens the combs for the honey to flow out of the hive through a tap. 

While proper care for the bees and responsible honey harvesting should be learned and adhered to, the Flow Hive is undeniably a game changer for anyone who wants to help the bees flourish. You can also learn more about proper bee care from specialist and author Noah Wilson Rich’s book, The Bee: A Natural History. 

Apart from supporting the bee population, beekeeping has personal benefits for beekeepers. In addition to the obvious upside of saving money on honey and beeswax, beekeeping also boosts the prosperity of local gardens and plants. As Cassandra Lawson, official beekeeper and educator at the Wylde Center in Georgia, explains to HGTV, there are numerous surprising health benefits when it comes to beekeeping. “Propolis is an antibiotic," she explains as an example. "A lot of the older farmers chew on it when they feel like they're getting sick.”

The Flow Hive is a great educational tool with a multitude of benefits especially for the bees who call it their home. Get one today to become a beekeeper practically overnight. And the next time you take a bite out of a garlic roll, remember all of those amazing little bees who helped pollinate that grain.