Observation Hive

[Fleur615 0]

@dansar I am presenting a Beekeeping workshop at our local primary school i would love to be able to show the children Live Bees on frames is there a possibility I could purchase one of your Observation Hive's they look great and im having trouble trying to find one.

Thank you

Chantelle

[dansar 5,524]

Hi. Sorry I haven’t been manufacturing for the past year as I am time short due to other commitments.

All the best with your  project.

Daniel

[WebKiwiNZ 49]

On 5/03/2020 at 9:36 PM, dansar said:

Hi. Sorry I haven’t been manufacturing for the past year as I am time short due to other commitments.

All the best with your  project.

Daniel

Hi Daniel

 

Would you be interested in sharing your plans?   I run a mens shed and it might be a peoject of interst to a couple of the guys.

 

Cheers

[dansar 5,524]

On 5/11/2020 at 8:33 AM, WebKiwiNZ said:

Hi Daniel

 

Would you be interested in sharing your plans?   I run a mens shed and it might be a peoject of interst to a couple of the guys.

 

Cheers

Plans are in my head sorry. Just follow basic “bee space” principles and frame dimensions. The rest should be easy.

[NickWallingford 317]

On 5/11/2020 at 8:33 AM, WebKiwiNZ said:

Would you be interested in sharing your plans?  

Here are notes I made re: observations hives some time back:

 

Observation hives...

 

I've used a variety of observation hives, including a 1 frame
'portable', a 2 frame not quite so portable and a 4 frame
vertical.  And I agree with Kerry Clark - the 4 frame was without
doubt the best for a permanent location.  The 2 framer I only ever
used as temporary - run out and grab a few frames, one with
honey, one with brood.  Find the marked queen to put on it.  And
brace it well in the car (it was perspex...).

 

One design (Russian?) that always intrigued me had one or two
vertical frames (one frame wide, that is), then a strip of queen
excluder, then, effectively, a 4 frame nuc fitted on top.  The 4
frame area was closed in (not glass) and acted as a reservoir for
bees/honey that allowed the unit to be more permanent.

 

Two choices for how you fit the glass/perspex - 'onto' the
surface (using clips, called 'mirror clips', I think, to fix the glass/perspex

against the surface).  Or sliding the glass/perspex into a groove from the
top of the observation hive (only really possible with perspex).

Latter gives less air leakage around the edges - I found the bees
didn't care for that (lots standing facing the draught at the
edges).

 

Make SURE you have adequate means of dealing with condensation -
build in HEAPS of mesh, etc, even if you have to keep it covered.
But I found no trouble with 25mm (1in) square of mesh at top and
bottom of hive.  Especially just after installing, you'll be
amazed at the moisture given off.

 

Perspex tended to craze after several years, not being as sparkly
clean as when first made.  Glass is easier to write on - its neat
to circle eggs, and date them, watching the development.

If for a permanent location, you can have heaps of fun designing
entrance ways that allow you to 'draft' individual bees into side
chamber, where you could, say, mark them or remove pollen, etc.

 

And you can by having a wide entrance, arrange to have incoming
bees going down one side and outgoing down another.

 

For a unit that you'll be moving a lot, or if it will be worked
regularly, work out a way of easily closing off the entrance and
being able to take the whole unit outside - much better than
trying to do bee work inside a classroom, for instance.

Design some sort of feeder system, too, for a permanent unit -
they'll need a lot of babying along in most locations.  You may
need to top them up with bees/brood.  And in a good season,
they'll be able to generate more swarms than you'd think
possible!

 

REFERENCES

 

Stevenson, Lt H R.  1985.  Establish an observation hive and
promote beekeeping!  Amer Bee Journal.  February 1985, pp 89-90.

 

Gale, Dr F C.  1972.  Observation beehives.  Amer Bee Journal.
112(1): 8-9.

 

Taber, Steve.  1980.  Bee behavior.  Amer Bee Journal.  January
1980, pp 14-15.

 

Gary, N E.  1968.  A glass-walled observation hive.  Amer Bee
Journal 108(3):92-94, 108(4):143-144, 146.

 

Connor, L J.  1974.  Observation bee hives.  Beekeeping
Information Number 10.  Entomology Extension, Ohio State
University, Columbus, OH 43210.  4 pp.

 

Bosch, K.  1980.  The observation hive and scale colony - two
important tools.  Amer Bee Journal 120(10):712-715, 721.

 

Pedigo, Bobby.  1985.  This is what we call a real observation
hive. Amer Bee Journal.  Nov 1985, pp 737-738 (letter to editor
with photograph).

 

Lindauer, M.  1961.  Communication among social bees.  Harvard
Univ Press, Cambridge, MA., p 17.

 

Gojermac, Walter L.  Building and operating an observation hive.
Univ of Wisc-Extension bulletin A2491.  6pp.

 

Witherell, Peter C.  1970.  Behavior of honeybees in
glass-covered runways.  Gleanings in Bee Culture.  November 1970,
pp 564-668.

 

Blanchet, Felix.  1979.  Honey producing observation hive.  Amer
Bee Journal.  February 1979.  pp 114-115,137.

 

Lehnert, T and Cantwell, George E.  1966.  The Beltsville
research apiarium.  Amer Bee Journal 106(9):336-337.

 

Anonymous.  1949.  Single-frame observation hive.  Co-operative
Extension work in Agric and Home Economics, North Carolina State
College and U S Dept of Agriculture Cooperating.  1pp.

 

Caron, D M.  1979.  Observation bee colonies.  Entomology Leaflet
103, Dept Entomology, Univ Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
14pp.

 

Gary, N E and Lorenzen, K.  1976.  How to construct and maintain
an observation hive.  Dev Agr Sci, Univ California Leaflet 2853.
18pp.

 

Jaycox, E R.  1973.  Making and using an observation bee hive.
Dept Hort, Univ Illinois Publ H-678, Urbana, IL 61801.  4pp.

[Martin Garside 146]

When I made a few some years ago, I started with a standard 5 frame nuc box from Ceracell and then manufactured a single frame top section to fit. If you look on Google you can find photos of a standard Ulster Observation Hive.

 

[ChrisM 1,277]

We have a single frame with clear plastic both sides mesh bottom and some 3mm holes near top of plastic. We only borrow queen plus brood for 3 hours for school trips then return to hive. So the observation is only temporary 

[Sailabee 1,102]

I also made mine with a wooden 5 frame nuc box on the bottom, single frame on top, which if only needed for 3 or 4 hours, made a mesh base which fitted inside the underside of the base, I only needed to take top of it. Has a queen excluder between top and box on bottom usually. I put blue tack under the ends of the frame on top to help stop it slopping in transit, and small pieces of wood either side of the bottom of top frame - same reason - originally used poly styrene, and the bees found sodding beads for several years after I switched to wooden ones - which every child told me about - give that a miss. As I use it for the local A & H Show, I also fitted a tube from the side that went down to bottom of top frame to an upside down bottle cap so that kids can squirt weak sugar solution to hydrate the hive, and entertain the kids. I borrowed one when making it, and the measurement between the two sheets of glass is 55 mm, and that leaves a good bee space either side, using 35 mm side bar frames.

[WebKiwiNZ 49]

Cheers. I'll look up your suggestions.

 

I had a guy come in wanting to make bee gear out of pallet wood. I think I disuaded him as most is not robust enough. Degrades quickly and the sized wood is all wrong. 

 

But it did get me thinking about modifying a current box for observation. Being in a community garden we get people wanting to look but I dont want to crack hives too often for entertainment.

Thanks again