Demonstration nuc ?

[greengumbo]

At work we have a few hives in a botanic garden and have had primary school classes come and have a look (from a distance!). We then show them an empty frame and some capped honey and explain about bees etc.

Recently we are hoping to visit schools and talk about bees and so we want to buy a demonstration nuc that holds a few frames with one sticking up behind glass so people can see the bees at work.

I had a look on th@rnes and they are pretty pricey. Does anyone know of any other retailers that might do things a bit cheaper ?

Thanks !

 

[Finman]

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Bees will be quite uppset for moving. Children only see how bees try toget out from box.

 

[fiftyjon]

PM sent greengumbo.

 

[itma]

PM sent greengumbo.

Care to share?
My association is thinking about looking into considering buying some sort of Obs hive ...

And there may be others interested in this as well!

 

[fiftyjon]

www . observationhives . co . uk

Seen at the convention, nicely made and not too expensive.

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

I just bought one from these guys, very well made, a good price and it's cedar, not pine... I'm going to use it at The Green Britain Centre, where I have a hive for education purposes, they have lots of school groups visiting the centre and now they will have a chance to look inside part of a hive, inside the centres building....
http://www.bee hive maker.co.uk/our_products.asp?catID=4 remove the spaces in the name...

 

[alanf]

My association is thinking about looking into considering buying some sort of Obs hive ...

The one Th0rnes sell as a "mobile nucleus hive" in various frame formats are quite nice to look at when newish but not cheap. They retain looks better if there is an alternative nuc box "out of season" the frames can be swapped to. My own impression is that polished wood is something of an "old school" show item. Not perhaps the impression of beekeeping that conveys the reality, a simple painted softwood or ply box with polycarbonate windows would be cheaper, not difficult to put together and could be freshened up with a bit of fence paint every year.

They do need a fair bit of maintenance tinkering to keep them busy (but not too busy) and every trip needs some preparation to get the queen up on display then back down on return. Over a season, the box plus a normal hive (even a reserve) can easily be devoted to frame swaps, bleeding off excess brood or reinforcing as required. Probably less overall disturbance than some other formats. A day a week off on display is not obviously stressful if the temperatures are even, air conditioned halls are less trouble than displays at public fairs.

If there's a weakness it's that the clamp together hardware is accessible to small fingers, and extra pins just add to the fiddle attraction for some. That tends to a permanent "don't touch" steward which gets a bit monotonous. Controlling numbers of those "taking turns" to get close enough to queen spot helps. Less obviously tweakable fastenings would cut the temptation, not quite on the to do list yet.

 

[Tim1606]

www . observationhives . co . uk

I can vouch for that. Bought one at the convention, the quality is excellent for the price paid and would highly recommend one.

They also make 14 x 12 ob hives as well.