With many productions shut down, Hollywood’s VIP set have turned to beekeeping to stay busy and soothe nerves frazzled by COVID. The popular choice among the glitterati like Chris Hemsworth and David Beckham is the Flow Hive, a boxed beehive that lets you harvest honey with the turn of a key. But, many don't know the record-breaking story bee-hind the beehive, which begins on a farm outside the small Australian beachside town of Byron Bay.
Beekeeping has been in the Anderson family for generations, and things were done in the traditional fashion until young Cedar Anderson began to feel bad about the way some bees always end up crushed when honey is harvested. "The first idea was simply that there must be a better way, and I'd been thinking about that from a very young age," said Cedar, who has been keeping bees since he was 6.
For nearly 10 years, he and his dad, Stuart, drew plans and tinkered with ideas and prototypes, trying to fulfill Cedar's dream of a way to get honey that's easier for the beekeeper and so much gentler on the bees. The final concept emerged as a result of this father-son teamwork, followed by months of trial and error testing. Finally, they were ready and just needed $70,000 USD to manufacture some needed plastic parts in order to bring their revolutionary beehive to the world. They went to Indiegogo to raise the money.
Within 15 minutes of launching their campaign, Cedar and Stuart had attracted a quarter of a million dollars U.S. in pre-orders and was soon breaking a slew of crowdfunding records -- not to mention Indiegogo's own website!
They were:
- the fastest to reach $1 million;
- the fastest to reach $2 million;
- the most successful campaign ever launched on Indiegogo
- the most successful crowdfunding campaign ever launched outside of the United States.
When the dust had settled at the end of the eight-week campaign, they had raised over $12 million USD! Since then, Flow Hive has sold over 75,000 hives to 130 countries, from the U.S. to Europe to Africa. But, despite these accomplishments, Cedar and Stuart have held firm to their standards. Every decision is made considering how they are affecting the environment, the community, their employees and their customers. They work hard to ensure their timber, plastics and other materials have the smallest environmental footprints possible. As such, they are a Certified B Corporation, has joined with other companies in the Net Zero 2030 program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2030, uses sustainably sourced timbers, and even uses Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified organic cotton for their beekeeping suits, mesh veils and Flow caps.
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