# observational hive at the county fair



## NewJoe

I would be very afraid to separate her for 12 hours. I would probably take the queen with the ob hive and then cage her to re-introduce her to the hive after placing the frames back in.

Or maybe leave her with the real hive and then paper combine the two frames from the OB hive after I was finished.


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## Tenbears

in 12 hours the hive, or the observation hive whichever becomes queenless will realize they are queenless. I would if it were me try my best to leave her in the hive where she will be the most at home, However, I have taken queen out of hives and caged them. waited 5 or 6 hours them placed a new caged queen in to replace her, for one reason or another, the new caged queen did not make it Dead In cage. I have never had a problem reintroducing her. The bees that have gone queenless may begin to think about building a queen but when all is returned to normal they will too.


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## Cleo C. Hogan Jr

I set up, and dismantle, an observation hive several times a year for schools, clubs, and State Park demonstrations. I like to take the queen with me, and, when I return, I always join the queen back to the colony. Depending on weather, the queen is normally out for 16 to 30 hours. I always reunite the queen using a double screen for 3 or 4 days. Never had a problem doing it this way. 

For me, the double screen is easier, less stressful on the queen, than catching her and caging. Try it some time, see if it works for you.

Depending on strength of the colony you removed the queen from, they may very well start a queen cell, and they may cap it, but, they will not normally let it go to emergence. If they allow a capped queen cell to go to day 10 or day 12, I will remove and start a nuc using the queen cell and one frame of bees, then, depending on time of year, you have a new queen you can use in one of your other hives, or, give a frame of brood and nurse bees (if you have enough season left) and start a new colony for next year. 

cchoganjr


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## ruthiesbees

Thanks for the info! I ended up leaving the queen in the hive and only taking two of the top-bars with bees and brood, honey and pollen. I found out the kids were disappointed as they only asked to see the queen. I will know next time to take her (and mark her first). I really appreciate the info on the capped queen cell and taking only one frame of brood to raise her. All the books I have seen mention much more brood is needed. I want to start a small colony in my observation frame hive and I think I might do just what you said.

Here is a picture of my home made obs. hive. The glass was from a standard 16x20 picture frame and the oak trim was scrap that we had. I can hang 6 top-bars in this hive (doubled up), but I only took 2 to the county fair, as it was my first time doing this. You see a little bit of the duct tape in the lower corner. I found out that the wood was warped just enough that some bees could escape if they tried hard enough. Not a good thing when you are around little kids. I will fix that by putting another latch at the bottom. And inside is a little feeder hooked up to a small water bottle. Overall cost was about $10 to build.


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## honeyman46408

Our county fair last for 10 days and our Ohive must have one frame of brood and one frame of honey (with a marked queen) here is a pic of 2 I have built


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## ruthiesbees

How do you get your photos to post so big? I'm struggling to get even the tiny ones to upload.

The hives look really cool. I'm glad our fair isn't for 10 days. Our bee club just staffed an educational honey bee table in the 4-H tent for 3 days. It was hot and the bees were not happy. Each of us brought our own observation hive for the day that we were there and then returned them to the hive each night.


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## honeyman46408

I open them in "Photo bucket" and copy then paste them here.


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## Michael Bush

I've done 12 hours many times and just put the frames back in the hive when done. After 24 hours they will have some queen cells started... and that might be more problematic.


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## Rader Sidetrack

To use Photobucket with Beesource, open a free account at Photobucket.com, and upload your photo. Once your photo is uploaded to Photobucket, click on the photo at Photobucket you wish to show us. Look for the box on the right that says "_Links to share this photo._"

Click in the box next to the one that says "*IMG*". It should turn yellow and flash "Copied." Then do a paste in the Beesource message you want the photo to appear in. This works best if you place the photo at the start of a new line.


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## ruthiesbees

Thank you so much for the step by step instructions on the pictures! I opened the photobucket account, so I'll attempt to post a picture here from there. As you can see, my bees were either not happy that the queen spent a night away last Monday, or they were just practicing. Now I have to decide what to do with this one.



Wow, that was easy to upload and post the pictures this way.


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