Observation Hive

[GaryMinckler]

Does the first egg laid get capped first? Awesome brood pattern.

[Michael Bush]

>Does the first egg laid get capped first?

Give or take an hour or so, yes.

[GaryMinckler]

This Queen bee defines "prolific layer". A 2 frame observation hive has 95% of cells of brood. She seems agitated with no room to lay, almost bullying worker bees that try to get close to her. Gotta try to split this up, she certainly is a beauty!

[OldMech]

   ROOM, was a serious consideration when I built my OB Hive..  I considered several options to make it a "working" hive, yet keep it observable....
   I sacrificed visibility for space..   I made my boxes three frames wide and seven frames tall using medium frames, and placed them all up against the front window of the house..   So, I can manipulate and maintain this hive like I would a normal nuc.. I can only see the inside frame, but I have seen the queen many times. I can swap a frame on the window side (inside) with a foundation-less frame and watch them draw it out..  It has worked well so far.
   I think? that the two frame hives were not meant to sustain themselves, they were meant as temporary placement to watch the bees, for fairts, school displays etc..  I think, if you try to keep a hive on two frames, that they will soon abscond. At the very least, the first emergence of new bees will over crowd the hive and they will swarm.
   If you maintain a two frame OB hive, please let me know how you manage it?

[GaryMinckler]

I maintained a colony in this hive for 2 years once, mostly by removing frames of honey and replacing them with frames of new foundation.

[BeeMaster2]

   ROOM, was a serious consideration when I built my OB Hive..  I considered several options to make it a "working" hive, yet keep it observable....
   I sacrificed visibility for space..   I made my boxes three frames wide and seven frames tall using medium frames, and placed them all up against the front window of the house..   So, I can manipulate and maintain this hive like I would a normal nuc.. I can only see the inside frame, but I have seen the queen many times. I can swap a frame on the window side (inside) with a foundation-less frame and watch them draw it out..  It has worked well so far.
   I think? that the two frame hives were not meant to sustain themselves, they were meant as temporary placement to watch the bees, for fairts, school displays etc..  I think, if you try to keep a hive on two frames, that they will soon abscond. At the very least, the first emergence of new bees will over crowd the hive and they will swarm.
   If you maintain a two frame OB hive, please let me know how you manage it?

OldMech,
By 2 frame hive do you mean 2 frames side by side or do you mean a total of 2 frames. My observation hive is 2 deep by 4 frames high (medium frames) with space underneath for some more comb.
It has done pretty well so far.  2 years ago we pulled 8 medium frames of capped honey and still left 4 full frames on the hive for winter stores.
Right now the hive has a swarm in it that has filled all 8 frames with brood and only a little bit of honey in the top of each frame. We lost the last batch of bees after super swarming. It produced 3 large swarms and I could hear at least 3 different queens piping. I took it apart after the third swarm and removed 10 queens that were still in their cells. I returned one marked queen to the OH but later that night I found only one unmarked queen. I removed several frames to match the number of bees left but they kept dropping and the new queen started laying but the SHB took over the hive.
Jim

[OldMech]

This Queen bee defines "prolific layer". A 2 frame observation hive has 95% of cells of brood. She seems agitated with no room to lay, almost bullying worker bees that try to get close to her. Gotta try to split this up, she certainly is a beauty!

   I am assuming by the description it is Two frames only..  Just trying to imagine managing two frames is all.

[BeeMaster2]

A few years ago the small late swarm that I put in the OH only built wax on the bottom 2 frames going into winter. They went down to a baseball size cluster by late December. They then started building at the winter solstice. Within a few months they filled those to 2 frames with brood and then swarmed. Still had lots of room but they swarmed any way.
Jim

[Grandpa Jim]

I have kept 2 - 2 frame OHs (2 deep or 3 medium) for several years.  They are used for our state farm show in Jan. and for talks and displays by myself and others.  Several things I do to slow them down.

.....I will sometimes remove the queen (spring or early summer...good queen to start a split) and let them raise a new one.  Once in this process they did swarm with the first queen and the remaining bees absconded with the second queen.....always a learning opportunity.

.....A month ago the 2 deep frames were 90% capped brood, so I removed both frames with some of the bees and placed them in another hive giving the OH 2 new undrawn frames, the queen and the bees that returned to the hive(no new bees for several weeks).  They did need to be fed during this time to get the wax drawn, but they did fine.
 
.....Most times just removing one frame and giving them a new one keeps them in check.

..... also sometimes I just put them in a nuc and shut it down for a month or so to clean it out or make modifications.

I take them out and loan them out a lot, so the size works well and of course everyone wants to see the queen when you take it out to a talk.   The do take ongoing maintenance, but it is worth the time and effort in what you can observe and learn from it.

Jim 

[GaryMinckler]

Caught this small swarm July 19th. Bees started emerging from capped cells yesterday.11751922_10205617360848234_6575901438225308239_n[attachment=0][/attachment]

[BeeMaster2]

Very nice.
I will be going into my OH this week to split them and move the queen to the new hive/nuc. Every frame in this hive is almost all brood.
Jim