# Who builds their Ohives



## honeyman46408

I have one in my shop that is a modafied version of beesouce plans (I can`t follow instructions :banana it had 5 deep frames.


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## kilocharlie

With only 2 frames, they may swarm on you pretty early. I have some standard Langstroths with double windows in all 4 sides. They must be lifted carefully, as much of the strength is cut out.


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## naturebee

Nice O hive honeyman.

Heres one I built about 15 years ago,
http://s113.beta.photobucket.com/user/FeralBeeProject/media/DCP_0206.jpg.html

I affixed it on a bar stool swivel.
I can swivel around when the 
queen moves. Also, beer bottle
for syrup is all they need.

Best Wishes
Joe
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/


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## oldiron56

I built one 8 med high, same Queen for two years,had to take out over twenty frames of brood this year to keep it civil [made nucs] have open brood in it now, move your hand across the plexi and find the warm spot, there is the brood. Gonna replce the plexi with glass this spring, the heat from the bees makes the plexi bow changing the bee space,then they fill it with burr, she even lays in that and you can watch the morph,over winter it gets half inch foam insulatin cut to size of plexi, the best thing a keeper can ever have. Queen is unmarked so it is like Where is Waldo


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## RobWok

I built this one a few years ago. 3 deep 3 medium. Have overwinted successfully a couple times. built in miller feeder up top. Trying to design a supering option as well.

Cherry, with spalted maple doors. http://wokaty.com/CIMG0546.JPG

There are a couple more pics on the site.

No plans yet. Thinking about making them complete in different architectural styles for sale.


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## Mr. C

I was thinking the same thing myself. Now the challenge is convincing my wife it should be in the living room or the school that it could go in my lab, though I'd prefer the living room.


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## RobWok

Ahhh, the wife dilemma. Yes. I was foolish in that when I built mine, I set it up in the bedroom. It has the best location for sun exposure and the right window. Unfortunately, they can buzz loudly from time to time. Also, there is the occasional hive deitrus that falls out the bottom if you have a bottom screen (which you should) Oddly enough, they propolized the top and side screens, but I've never seen a hive propolize a screened bottom board.


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## westernbeekeeper

I have a nice one; it's the one from this site here. Made out of solid oak; planning to put bees in it this spring.


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## BeeGhost

RobWok said:


> I built this one a few years ago. 3 deep 3 medium. Have overwinted successfully a couple times. built in miller feeder up top. Trying to design a supering option as well.
> 
> Cherry, with spalted maple doors. http://wokaty.com/CIMG0546.JPG
> 
> There are a couple more pics on the site.
> 
> No plans yet. Thinking about making them complete in different architectural styles for sale.


Very nice looking ObHive!! I want to have one at my house so bad, but the neighbors would crap a purple twinkie if they knew I brought bees home from the beeyard!! I will have one someday, just need to strategically place it in my garage with a way out into the side yard that no one can see, basically look like a wild swarm moved into the wall!


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## kilocharlie

Honeyman - requesting permission to plagiarize your "Profanity is ignorance made audible" line...Thanks in advance.

BTW, I'm changing over to all medium 10-frames, so I'm building new observer hives, too - all one size frames, so the old ones are bening sold. Another experiment - one will have standard foundation, one small cell, one foundationless. I'll be building an apidictor, too...and I'll be watching and listening.


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## BeeGhost

honeyman46408 said:


> This is a pic of one I have built for the Fair


That is cool!! I can see something like that in my retirement log cabin home!!


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## kilocharlie

oldiron56 said:


> ... the best thing a keeper can ever have. ...


Double down on that sentiment, oldiron! An observation hive probably doubles the learning rate.


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## oldiron56

kilocharlie said:


> Double down on that sentiment, oldiron! An observation hive probably doubles the learning rate.


Your right Kilo,this hive is in a shed, stays cold can see the cluster and feel the heat where the brood is. This is her 2nd winter and she is laying right now. I think it is like a barometer as to what is going on in the other hives. The first Queen I put in there was a cell I grafted held in with tooth picks,two frames of brood and the bees, watched her emerge, then was able to see the mateing sign she was parading around with, that Queen went to the city zoo in their ob hive. This Queen in there now was gonna be pinched, never made much honey, she has given alot of entertianment. Watched her cross that forbidding honey band,bees moving stores around,bees holding beetles in a jail,dancing, and I heard that first one pipeing through the glass, every beek should have one. Only thing I would do diff is drill 4 1 inch holes in the bottom, covered with screen, when the feeder jar leaks it runs across the bottom and bees get stuck in it , I`ll do that when I replace the glass.


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## kilocharlie

Syrup spill drains in the bottom...now that is something that comes from an observer hive owner! Like you say, EVERY BEEK SHOULD HAVE ONE! I think I will probably develop the same opinion of the apidictor. Watch and listen.

Mr. C. and Robwok - wives and potential beeyard hosts are best introduced honey first, followed by well-aged mead and your friendliest smile.


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## jbeshearse

My observation hive built from a modified Beesource Plan. I holds either 6 mediums (2 wide x 3 deep) or 4 deeps (2 wide x 2 deep)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157631787992353/


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## oldiron56

KILO........... I'm changing over to all medium 10-frames, so I'm building new observer hives, too - all one size frames >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> That is where I messed up in the beginning, the first OH I made was nice, used Cherry,but the plan was for 2 deeps with a med on top, didn`t use it for a few years, in the mean time I moved to all mediums and only use the deeps for cut outs, nasty looking comb, so never used it ,sold it . Another mistake I made with it was to cut slots to slide the plexi down from top. Not good, the guy that bought it loaded it up and loved it in his garage ,till he tried to pull the plexi up out of that daddo, the bees propolizes it in place. He got it out ,but wasn`t easy. He vasalined it up good before he put it back in.


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## Gypsi

Pretty nice observation hives on this thread. Might have to build myself one. Don't think I'll attach it to my house, but maybe a shed?


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## kilocharlie

I love 10-frame mediums! Mine have 3 slots cut vertically down the inside of the short ends. These are for hive dividers. The slots are about 1/8" deep, 17/64" wide, and run all the way to the floor, which means the floor board is slotted, too, as is the inner cover. Incidentally, the flip side of my floor boards have two 3/32" square x full length rods attached either side of the hive partitions (the other side is an screened bottom board). These have 3 entrances facing different directions.

The 3-slot medium 10-frame Langstroth hives have lots of uses. With hive partitions in the 2 outside slots, it makes a triple 3-frame mating nucleus box, so the colonies share the heat. This 3x3 triple mating nuc arrangement accommodates more bees than a baby nuc, and gets things started increasing a little faster. It doesn't seem to have as much swarming trouble as baby nucs do.

With a single partition in the middle slot, it makes a 2 x 5-frame double nucleus box. I usually place these over a strong colony separated by a double screen board in the winter for my late summer / fall splits. Again, the small colonies share the heat of the stronger colony.

I make a 7-frame increase nuc by adding a Mann Lake 2-gallon frame feeder, or a 9-frame increaser with a single frame-sized feeder.

I can use 1 partition with queen excluder (queen includer in this case) for isolating a queen on new, empty comb for breeding in a 7-frame open / 3-frame egg laying arrangement. The 3 frames in the queen area are a modification of Jay Smith's method for Cut-Cell Method queen rearing.

It also works for a single medium 10-frame box when everything is going bonkers in the thick of the nectar flow. To this I will add 3 windows in each of the short ends and 1 on each long side to make an observer hive, unless I can build a single, large window with slots in the plex for the short end. 

I make the partitions out of 1/4" marine plywood, tall enough to engage the inner covers (3 of them for 3x3 mating nuc arrangement, 2 of them for 2x5 double nuc arrangement), deep enough to engage the slots in the floors, and with little "ears" on them to prevent the bees from sneaking around the 3/8" frame hanger shelves in the tops of the short ends.

The coolest part is any box, any arrangement, any frame. Everything fits, and you can use it for honey-in-the-comb, too. They max out at about 51 lbs, but only when used for honey and filled to perfection (yeah, right! hahaha). You can really grow an apiary with these 3-slot, 10-frame mediums. It seems to me the best of all worlds. The only drawback is cost - that's 3 medium Langstroths = 2 deeps. More frames to build, but I love working in the shop anyways.


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