# Fast and Cheap Observation Hive



## Tara

Monday evening I cut the holes, assembled and stained the hive, screwed on the brass hasps, and tacked screen over the feeder/vent holes.


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## Tara

Tuesday afternoon I cut the plastic inserts, nailed the entrance tube into the wood, and stuck felt pads on the bottom. Then I loaded it up with bees. 

Tomorrow I'll hook up their exit tube.












You can tell this is a rescue-attempt; this nuc would not have made it thru the winter. Unlike a few started later than this one, it never took off. I loaded everything up near dusk, and couldn't see if there were any brood, but I tried to put the most active/populated sides on the inside. I can see about 10 older open brood on one of the outer faces--hopefully the queen and more brood are on the inner faces.










Thanks to all who gave advice on this forum on observation hives and measurements!


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## coopermaple

Well done! Simple and easy to make. Hopefully the bees will make it thru this winter now.


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## Capricorn

Why are the frame rests different? It looks real nice. Good luck with it!


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## Tara

Lol.. the frame rests are different because I made the mistake of taking a measurement from the top of one dado to the top of another, and then forgot and made the dado on the wrong side of the line. So on the middle set of frames I just put the router up against my carpenters square and made a depression to bring everything down to the right level--I may end up doing frame rests like that for any other obs hive I make, because it holds the frames centered!


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## Tara

coopermaple said:


> Tara,
> Nice job with the build. Thinking about building dad one to put in the office. Can you send me the measurements you used. I have checked out a few and there seems to be quite a difference in them. I like the overall layout of yours better than the others I have checked out.
> Thanks
> Mark


Thanks!

Measurement from pane to pane is 3 1/8". I might even do 3 1/4" for a little more space if I were to do it again--some of the honeycomb is pressed up against the plastic and the bees are now working like mad to move the honey and rework all the cells to fit. My frames are 1 3/8" wide, so you may need a little more room if your frames are 1 1/2" wide. However, there was a pretty good discussion a while back where people much more experienced than I with observation hives recommended 3 1/8" wide for double-frames, so that's what I used.

Top and bottom boards are 22" across. Interior measurements across the length are 18 3/8", and vertical pieces are 18 1/2" high (if you add a few inches, you can just put 6 medium frames in). Frame rests are 3/8" deep and 5/8" wide. Vertical slots for the window panes are the same depth as the dados, 3/8" (I made those with my table saw blade, so about 1/8" wide).

I used a 1" hole and 1" clear vinyl tubing for the exit.

Good luck!


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## WI-beek

Very nice work Tara. I see I will have to make one or two of these myself. I wonder if I built one with three frames wide and three frames tall if the queen would not lay on outside of outer frames?

It would be really nice to see what kind of pollen they are working and if there is a good flow on without having to open hives in bee yards. There must be a lot of things you can pic up on by having on or more of these around.


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## S&H

WI-beek said:


> ... I wonder if I built one with three frames wide and three frames tall if the queen would not lay on outside of outer frames? ...


If two panes of glass or plexiglass are used per side, with perhaps 1/4" space between them, it will provide sufficient insulation so that the queen will lay on the outside frames. Double panes will also nearly eliminate interior condensation. Other than using double panes, one can face the ob hive panes with some other form of insulation, perhaps foam or cork boards, to be removed when actually viewing.


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## KQ6AR

Very nice, I like it.


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## MastoDon

Tara... Very nice work. Do you have access to the lower frames in any way other than through the top?


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## Tara

Yup! Pull the plastic frames out! Because the frame rests are indented, there's no way to pull the frames out vertically. They have to be slid in from the side.

Hopefully I can pull the panes away from the brace supports and propolis that will surely appear... I heard smearing pertrolium jelly along the sides where they rest in the supports helps, but I didn't have any handy and didn't have time to run to the store before dark fell. If I have a real need to pull out the frames, in the worst case scenario I take the thing outside and apply snips to the plastic. But that would probably only happen if SHB or WMs infested--otherwise I'm just going to let them do their thing and swarm or whatever, and just watch it all.

At least thats the plan.


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## Countryboy

_otherwise I'm just going to let them do their thing and swarm or whatever, and just watch it all._

If that is the plan, may I recommend that you build a mini frame for the top frame, rather than just a foundationless bar? If you let that go, the bees may possibly build some funky combs that will be absolutely miserable to work with once you do decide to get into the hive at some later point. If you build a mini frame that respects bee space, you may be able to contain any funky combs so it isn't as bad to deal with on down the road.


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