Observation Hive

The one on ebay quoted above could be easily adapted for use indoors..Just needs a tube from the entrance through your wall or window frame.

I started work an a public observation hive last year for a park in Ealing finally got it up and running a few weeks ago and it's working better than expected.

Tom Bick said:

I started work an a public observation hive last year for a park in Ealing finally got it up and running a few weeks ago and it's working better than expected.

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and how much time have you stood watching?

pargyle said:

A couple of our Association members have ones very similar to this which we take to the various events we attend .. they work very well but, obviously, you need a nucleus of bees available to put in it ... they just transfer the frames from the Nuc into the Obs box for the day - the bees don't seem to mind being confined. Ours have a mesh panel in the top which allows people to smell the bees and when it has been warm a mist of water through the mesh seems to help. A cloth cover when they are not being observed helps as well.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Observati...843?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e9db7cafb

The photos show the construction very well on this listing - perhaps you've already seen it ?

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I've been wondering about a similar sort of thing, but just an "observation top" for a standard nuc.
Bees can live in the same nuc (with standard roof rather than obs top) when not on show.
Before going to the show, the frame with Q is removed from the nuc and inserted into the glass-sided replacement roof, a space-filler (frame feeder?) goes into the nuc to replace the Q frame, and the tall frame-showing lid replaces the roof.
On return, the Q frame comes out of the glass and retakes its place in the body of the nuc, and the standard nuc roof goes back on. The empty glass section can be taken indoors and repolished before the next outing.
The "observation top" would be rather similar to (maybe even modified from) a frame show case, but with QX mesh below and a (coverable) mesh vent above for air and water-misting.


In short, use a standard nuc as the base. Only craft what you really must.
Obviously, there would have to be secure attachment of glass top to nuc, and secure closure of the nuc entrance. For which reasons, a poly nuc might not be the best starting point ...

Strikes me as minimum hassle both to make and use.
But it doesn't seem that others go this route.
Which makes me think there must be some obvious drawback that I'm missing ...

Dishmop said:

and how much time have you stood watching?

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Not as long as I would like. As it's just started and we set it up Q- I have made a few visits lately to sort out queen cells ect and just a few checks but every visit is just great and already learnt a couple of things from it. I would love one for myself but the space is the difficult bit.

pargyle said:

A couple of our Association members have ones very similar to this which we take to the various events we attend .. they work very well but, obviously, you need a nucleus of bees available to put in it ... they just transfer the frames from the Nuc into the Obs box for the day - the bees don't seem to mind being confined. Ours have a mesh panel in the top which allows people to smell the bees and when it has been warm a mist of water through the mesh seems to help. A cloth cover when they are not being observed helps as well.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Observati...843?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e9db7cafb

The photos show the construction very well on this listing - perhaps you've already seen it ?

Click to expand...

The design has been around for many a year and think it's referred to as the Ulster observation hive. Have made a few in my time and remembered to do myself one also. The glass does need some sort of covering just to keep the bees in the dark every now and then otherwise they get a bit stressed and just run about the frame. Also it's important to replace the missing frame with a frame feeder of water. They are great for the short talk and could pull in the crowds if selling honey on a stall

Tom Bick said:

Not as long as I would like. As it's just started and we set it up Q- I have made a few visits lately to sort out queen cells ect and just a few checks but every visit is just great and already learnt a couple of things from it. I would love one for myself but the space is the difficult bit.

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Do you plan to overwinter it?

Tom Bick said:

The design has been around for many a year and think it's referred to as the Ulster observation hive. Have made a few in my time and remembered to do myself one also. The glass does need some sort of covering just to keep the bees in the dark every now and then otherwise they get a bit stressed and just run about the frame. Also it's important to replace the missing frame with a frame feeder of water. They are great for the short talk and could pull in the crowds if selling honey on a stall

Click to expand...

Yes ... we do a couple of events during the season and usually we have one of these hives so that people can actually see the bees - gets a lot of interest - there's usually a marked queen in there and we have been known to mark a drone in a different colour so people can spot them.. a black cloth to cover over the glass when it gets quiet works well.

One of our association members has a beautiful one made out of varnished mahogany which really looks the dogs but it doesn't need to be that elaborate.

itma said:

Which makes me think there must be some obvious drawback that I'm missing ...

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I can't see one .. anyone with a few hives is inevitably going to have at least one nuc on the go and if the 'observation hive' is able to be just a conversion from a standard nuc then it kills two birds with one stone ..

Sounds like a plan to me ...

The only drawback is that if you have a permanent obs hive I found is I need to split at least once a year....The weather effects them so much. They'll store food then if there's a break in the flow, they eat what they have stored.
The first and second full year I split twice.
Last year they decided to swarm whilst I was doing the split........
One good point is that you can put a foundationless frame in an see how they work it.
Overwinter them and you can study how they dont really do much at all.

Dishmop said:

Do you plan to overwinter it?

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The original plan is to remove them to a hive to overwinter but I don’t have complete control on that decision there is a group of beekeepers in the park and I only advise what I would do but its their call. It should be reasonably (mistake thinking this) easy as the back of the hive is in an enclosure, basically a fancy shed with no roof. We can open the back of the hive work on the bees and transfer to a hive if we need to. The hive will be raised up to the same height of the OH entrance, and the bees should work out the rest and removed once settled. The problem may be getting all the bees out of the OH. I am trying to get some good photos of the hive how it operates and works ect. I don’t like to boast too much and we have a few hurdles to cross but the hive is working great and a great deal of thought went into it along with a few meetings with the council and the result is the hive is very cleaver and great that Ealing council had the nerve to do it. It will be interesting if it throws out a cast swarm this week.

The problem may be getting all the bees out of the OH.

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and putting them back next spring...

Dishmop said:

and putting them back next spring...

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Putting them in this time was not a problem but it’s the big surface area to brush them off is the thing and I bet no sooner you brush one off two more will land back on the glass :0

One problem I get is when I take the hive outside and open it, the flyers will go to the entrance tube into the house, but the non-flyers which land on the grass just wander around rather lost. After I have put the doors back on I leave them for a bit to see if they can find the entrance, but then leftovers get brushed off and I have to grab the hive and run indoors quickly.Those still in the grass get introduced the the cordless vacumm cleaner and tipped out onto the landing board..

Dishmop said:

One problem I get is when I take the hive outside and open it, the flyers will go to the entrance tube into the house, but the non-flyers which land on the grass just wander around rather lost. After I have put the doors back on I leave them for a bit to see if they can find the entrance, but then leftovers get brushed off and I have to grab the hive and run indoors quickly.Those still in the grass get introduced the the cordless vacumm cleaner and tipped out onto the landing board..

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Love your hive dishmop. I have come by way of a beautiful hardwood double glazed window casing very large gap between panes of glass ( which is also included) Was an over procurement from a construction job my OH worked on. (In fact we have 3 of them). One is begging to be repurposed to an obs hive. I just need to work out how to work positioning of frames and making bee space correctly. It would be situated in my living room. Way more interesting than watching tv.

Whne I tell people I have bees in the lounge I describe the hive as being like two window frames screwed together.

Tom Bick said:

The original plan is to remove them to a hive to overwinter but I don’t have complete control on that decision there is a group of beekeepers in the park and I only advise what I would do but its their call. It should be reasonably (mistake thinking this) easy as the back of the hive is in an enclosure, basically a fancy shed with no roof. We can open the back of the hive work on the bees and transfer to a hive if we need to. The hive will be raised up to the same height of the OH entrance, and the bees should work out the rest and removed once settled. The problem may be getting all the bees out of the OH. I am trying to get some good photos of the hive how it operates and works ect. I don’t like to boast too much and we have a few hurdles to cross but the hive is working great and a great deal of thought went into it along with a few meetings with the council and the result is the hive is very cleaver and great that Ealing council had the nerve to do it. It will be interesting if it throws out a cast swarm this week.

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How's the hive going.

It's going great but has presented a few problems and head scratching. We set it up Q- so they could raise a queen, made the mistake in leaving three queen cells and it started to throw out cast swarms but then some went back in the hive? We eventually accounted for 3 virgin queens but then noticed a fourth QC A few weeks later and no sign of the new queen a test frame produced queen cells ok we thought back on track but then noticed one frame with drone brood?? Right now don't know if it's laying workers or a dud queen?? we have looked and looked and there's no sign of a queen but we have queen cells so we are leaving alone for now apart from giving them a frame of brood each week to keep it interesting and keep the bee numbers up. The public seem to love it and when at the hive it gets plenty of interest. Someone is talking about one at Chiswick House just down the road so may be making another soon.

Tom..

just out of curiosity, do you have any capped stores in the hive?

Yes plenty of capped stores including one full frame and a new colony of bees installed as I decided to replace the original colony. The queen had not returned from mating flight and although had produced queen cell from a test frame they had also started with laying workers and soon abandoned the queen cells so decided the best thing was a fresh start. So a nice colony with a good queen well balanced with plenty of room stores and so far performing great, the queen is very happy laying eggs on demand, the bees have good room to expand with two frames of foundation and one part built natural comb. So all been well we should fingers crossed only need to manage the size by removing a few frames and replacing with fresh every now and then.