Spring observation hive startup

[Leoj900]

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Last week I challenged myself to make an observation hive with only scraps that the previous homeowners left at the house. They had left two glass panes and some wood scraps that I was able to make into a fairly nice looking observation hive. So then I inspected the hive I was going to split to make sure it had plenty of fresh eggs and brood and that there were drones active. I found all those so I proceeded to move several frames to the observation hive and a replace them with empty frames.
Things were going well until I got to the last frame in the hive and still could not find the queen. I prayed that she would stick out somehow and then went back through the hives. Right before giving up, I looked over at the lid that I had propped up on the side of the hive and saw a single bee on it. It was the queen. So I made the transfer and everything seemed good, but I decided two days later that there was not enough brood and bees in the observation hive to be very successful so I tried to quickly grab a couple extra frames from the hive and put them into the observation  hive.
What I found crazy is that in just two days, the bees had almost completely filled out the empty frames I had put in there with white wax. I had no idea they could be that fast at working!

[Ben Framed]

Nice!

[The15thMember]

I want an observation hive so badly!  Nice job making one for yourself.  Isn't that just like queens, to be right where you don't look. 

[Brian MCquilkin]

fantastic you have inspired me to make one this year

[William Bagwell]

Nice picture of a perfect retinue! Have read that this used to be common behavior and was the quickest way to spot queens.

Also want an OB hive. Other things keep getting bumped above it on the ever growing 'to do' list.