Homemade Observation Hive

[JordanM]

This is the observation hive that i have made from an aquarium and will be adding bees into next week. It is a 20 frames OB hive.

The only thing that i did was build the frames and build the top to go on it.

This is the aquarium empty


This is the aquarium half full of frames


This is 1 of the frames out of the aquarium with starter strips


This is the hive all the way filled with frames


This is looking down the inside of the hive with starter strips


This is the entrance of the hive with the cover on


This is the complete hive


How do you think it looks?

[ElDoBill]

Looks great, wish I hadn't thrown my old one away..

[Kathyp]

how do the bees come and go? do you feed from the top?  great idea for an old aquarium!  i may have one or two in the garage  :)

[JordanM]

In the 6 picture you can see the entrance, it is a top entrance.

I plan on feeding if i have to with a boardman feeder with an l bracket under it in the top entrance.

Glad everyone likes it.

[Ross]

The only problem will be seeing what is going on.  With the frames stacked up, you can't see the queen, eggs, etc.  Here is mine...

[Frantz]

Jordan,
As my daughter would say, "that is freak'n RAD!" Good job on using whats around, Very Inspiring!
Frantz

[Rex]

Is this for indoors or outdoors?  I'm curious to know if there will be a greenhouse effect going on inside with all that glass.

[JordanM]

Yes it will be outside  but i will be keeping it in the shade and a tarp over it to keep the sun off.

[Ross]

You will likely have moisture problems.  I would go with a more ventilated top if possible since you get no air from underneath.

[JordanM]

I was thinking about putting a little shim all the way around the top but not big enough that the bees would be able to get through.

[HAB]

Was looking at my old 30 gal Aquarium.  It has a bottom that is made of a hard black plastic like material.  Going to see if a Dremmel will cut it out and then put in a screened bottom :).

[JordanM]

Sounds good. The hardest part was making all of the frames to size and bespace(took a little bit of math).

Hope your turns out as good as mine, post some pictures of it when you get them done i would love to see how yours turns out.

[my-smokepole]

The hard black materail should be a slate.
My-smokepole