# single frame for event question



## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

I asked a similar question last year.
This Saturday morning I'm doing a 4H event and bringing a Kelley single deep frame observation hive. I just now got from the donor hive 2 frames, and the queen captured in a metal queen catcher and placed those in a deep nuc. The queen catcher is on top of the 2 frames and enclosed in a medium nuc, then lid. Open entrances on both hives, 2 feet from each other. There are drones and capped drones, open brood in donor hive. I have no problem with them starting a new queen. 

I have limited time for the next 2 days before event and mornings are in the high 50s next 2 days. 

Any danger in placing the single frame and release queen into obs hive, put in garage for the night? Open while Im at work tomorrow? Im gone 14 hrs. 

Any advice appreciated.


----------



## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

I put the nuc in the garage with queen still in catcher. I think what I'm going to do is keep the nuc at 2 frames and 3 division frames to keep it tight. I need a hive where I can quickly find the queen in a nice brood frame to put in the Kelly observation hive for a day. 

https://www.kelleybees.com/Shop/32/Hives-Components/Hive-Kits/4302/Observation-Hive

Is this much different than a Ulster observation nuc? Pretty much have to do the same thing in respect to having to go through the nuc to find the queen frame to pull up to observation? I stabilized the base with cross boards.


----------



## D Coates (Jan 6, 2006)

The link you posted is definitely different than an Ulster hive. An Ulster hive has space for 5 frames below with one "observation" frame above. It's a nuc and can act like one for a week or so before problems will arise. The problem being because the queen is stuck in upper her pheromones won't get below in high enough numbers to keep them from starting queen cells below. Left to their own devices there'll be capped emergency queen cells all over the place below.

I've got and love my ulster hive for any presentations I'm doing. It's very stable, has nice handles to carry it by, and holds a large population with venting from below so people can hear and see them if you lift the hive up. NOTE: I did add another layer of screen on the bottom as hitch hikers would hang under there because they could get food from bees on the inside. When I added the screen there's a 1/2 gap between the original screen and added screen so the bees on the inside can't feed hitchhikers on the outside. That was a scary lessoned learned... but problem solved. 

It's $160 vs. the $40 of the Kelley you linked but it's no comparison in my eyes.


----------



## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

I love the weight of my little one framer--that is one of the main reasons I was attracted to it. I figured that in either case, my one framer or an Ulster, I have to go into the nuk or a hive to get a frame and look for the queen, I couldn't see much difference as that process was the same. 

But single frame has it's problems which I found out on Saturday. The weather that day was extremely windy. Last year our 4H event was windy and there were canopies blowing down. This year was much windier and none of us put up our canopies. We had assigned tables and mine faced the sun all day. I didn't worry because it was in the low 60's with all that wind, but by 1:30 I had a problem. Yep, direct sun on the one side of the frame and the larvae started dying, and the surface of the capped brood was getting shiny. I think I noticed too late and at that point I kept the whole thing covered with a small table cloth as much as I could, and did the teaching by only pulling it back for about a quarter of the frame. Even at that there was still too much exposure that deeply concerned me. Viewers didn't know what was going on. I simply told them the sun is too hot on the glass. Because how the tables were set up, and because of the wind, it would have taken a whole rearranging of my set up and there simply wasn't time. I didn't bring a helper this year and it was finished at 3pm so I just hung in there trying to protect the bees as best I could. 

Based on what happened on Saturday--which has not happened the handful of times I've used this hive, if they can move up and down from the nuk to the observation frame in the Ulster, I think it's something I have to get if I plan to continue taking bees to events. Which is exactly what I want to do. 

Now the decision is, Brushy Mountain's Ulster has a screen bottom and a choice between deep or medium. I have a few hives that are strictly mediums and I think this is the better choice as size and weight is an issue for me.


----------

