Most of us love the delicious honey that honey bees produce, but often times when the tasty treat is being harvested it can mean danger for the bees themselves. Whether they are disturbed, crushed, or made homeless, the process of harvesting honey can be an invasive one.
When Cedar Anderson saw his brother get stung while trying to extract honey he was inspired to find a simpler and safer way to get the job done.
Cedar and his father, Stuart spent ten years trying to develop a more human and bee-friendly design. And at the end of those ten years, their design made the harvesting process so non-invasive, they didn’t have to wear bee suits anymore.
In 2015 the design, now dubbed Flow Hive, raised over $12 million during a crowd-funding campaign. Four years later, the father and son duo have distributed over 51,000 hives around the world, and is helping raise the honey bee population across the world!
Its simple to use and once set up, bees can’t tell the difference between their own hive and the Flow Hive. The hive allows users to simply turn on a “tap” and collect the honey as it flows out of the hive.
On top of the increasing the population of honey bees, the two donate all their profits to creating and protecting pollinator habitats in Australia and the United States.