The Flow™ Hive, a revolutionary beehive invention allowing the harvesting of honey without opening the hive and thus, limiting the stress on the bees, launched an Indiegogo campaign that has already broken records on the world’s largest crowdfunding platform. The sweet campaign raised $2.18M in the first day, breaking the record for most funds raised in the first 24 hours. It took 477 seconds for the campaign to reach its goal of $70,000.

“In this modern world of limited natural habitat, beekeepers have become vital carers of bee colonies,” said Cedar Anderson, Co-inventor of Flow Hive. “Our goal is that Flow Hive will encourage thousands more people to become advocates of bees and become more aware of the threats facing not only bees, but the matrix of life.”

The Flow Hive marks the biggest change in honey collection and beekeeping equipment in more than 150 years and has enormous implications for amateur and commercial beekeeping. The father and son design team from Australia, Stuart and Cedar Anderson, have been working on a simplified method of honey collection for a decade, and for the past three years have been field testing their Flow Hive design. The invention has been tested and proven to work by amateur and professional beekeepers alike in Australia and around the world and is now ready to manufacture on a larger scale.

Co-inventor, Stuart Anderson said, “We have been completely blown away by the support thus far on the Indiegogo platform, and we hope our invention will create awareness and a community of beekeepers around the world that will harvest in a bee friendly way.”

With this system, it is no longer necessary to smoke the bees and dismantle the hive, remove the honeycombs and extract honey with a centrifugal extractor. Instead, with the turn of a lever, the honeycomb cells open and the honey drains down to a pipe at the back of the hive, directly into a drum or jar. Meanwhile the bees are virtually undisturbed as the pure, unprocessed honey drains. When the lever is turned back, the honeycomb cells are reset and ready to be refilled with honey.

The Flow Hive saves nearly all the labor involved in honey extraction. The beekeeper doesn’t even need to be there as the honey drains, and can start the process and return an hour or so later to collect the honey. There is also the potential for remotely activated or automatic honey extraction.

The Flow frames are designed to fit conventional beehives. The frames have clear ends and they create a viewing window. A beekeeper can see when the comb is full and the also check for healthy bee numbers and pests.