Sweet Pines Apiary
Honeybee Observation Hive
HOME - Back to Sweet Pines Apiary home page or look for us
at www.tianca.com.
Educational Displays
There's no better attention-getter than live honeybees, safely behind a wall of
glass. We are, at the same time, attracted and repulsed. Young and old alike
are fascinated by this social insect.
We can provide observation hive, complete exhibition design, and supplementary
materials including:
· Hands-on materials
· Detailed pictures and posters
· Lesson Plans, quizzes, and activity sheets for different ages
· or information and trivia reproducibles.
Let us help you make your program and facility more
interesting through the addition of a living honeybee display with educational
materials as backup!
Observation Hive Setup and Maintenance Guidelines
Have you ever considered establishing an observation hive for honeybees but were
concerned about lack of knowledge and possible complications? This booklet
covers setup alternatives and considerations for public displays, including
displays managed by non-beekeepers. It is written for the non-beekeeping staff
of museums and nature centers so they can evaluate the potential of
establishing an educational observation hive at their facility. This booklet
does not provide sufficient background to keep bees. Many good books have been
written on that subject. This booklet deals with the very specialized area of
observation hive setup and maintenance requirements, for planning purposes.
Observation Hive Rental & Maintenance Service
Sweet Pines Apiary provides an observation hive maintenance service on Long
Island
Portable Observation Hive
Our portable observation hive is built to be rugged, yet attractive. It
holds two deep frames of honeycomb with only one frame thickness so that the
queen can generally be found on the comb surface. This hive is great for maintaining
an observation hive for a small period or during warm months. It takes
substantial effort to maintain bees in this hive all year in a temperate
climate, but it can be done. This is an ideal unit when you need to take your
show "on the road" to visit classrooms or fairs. This hive can be
moved easily and setup in a classroom with a flight exit tube to a nearby
window for short-term study. Side "glass" is Plexiglas for safety in
the mobile application and is further protected by slide-in wood panels. The
feeder bottle is accessible from beneath the jar through a tunnel.
Single Frame Width Ensures Queen Can Be Seen
Most of our permanent installation observation hives are mounted on a turntable for flexible viewing. This allows installation against a wall for easy bee-exit hookup but still allows the hive to be turned to locate the queen or hive study. A single frame thickness is normally used to allow observation of the queen on the comb surface. The whole hive can be lifted off the turntable for easy maintenance. The unit pictured is four frames high and can be maintained year round in a temperate climate in a heated building. Glass is "auto" glass, two sheets of glass with an interior layer of plastic, for safety. Glass is easier to clean and doesn't scratch or fog like Plexiglas. I no longer build this model unless a special modification from a standard unit is desired. Draper's Superbee Apiaries provides a very nice unit for a very competitive price and I often wind up recommending them when there is no special need for my added features.
Double Frame Width Improves Wintering Survival
Some installations do not have sufficient thermal control to maintain the area around the observation hive heated properly. This doublewide (two frames wide at each level) unit allows the bees to better control their own environment by clustering across the width of the hive. This greatly improves the survivability and ease of care of the bees over a winter. The problems with this hive are that the queen is often between frames, and so is not as often observed, and the hive is a two-man lift. This is often the "winter hive" paired with a single width "summer hive" and exchanged spring and fall. My current design uses a single hardwood outer shell with interchangeable internal spacers for single or double width. This greatly reduces the installation costs for a setup having both single and double thicknesses.
Security!
That is a big word today. Due to many requests from a number of nature centers and schools, I have designed a hive with security designed in. It uses tamper-resistant fastener heads on all hardware, has table lock-down to prevent vandalism by bouncing the turntable up off the exit tube, and has removable plywood panels over the glass doors to secure when unattended. This has become my standard offering. It has a 5/4 inch solid hardwood outside frame, sized for three deep brood frames in height, and the interior interchangeable spacers for single or double width.
Turntable Lock-down Increases Safety
Every advantage seems to have corresponding disadvantages. The flexibility offered by the turntable mounting and easy lift-off for maintenance opens an avenue for pranks of bumping the hive up and allowing bees to escape. We have provision for a lock-down that still allows the turntable to be rotated completely.
Hive-top Feeder Eases Care
Locating the feeder at the bottom of the hive, and thus the cluster, makes it
difficult for the bees to access the feeder at cooler temperatures. Dead bees
also easily block the feeder access tube at the bottom. The hive-top feeder
makes it much easier to maintain the bees at cooler temperatures. It is
removable and can be used for providing water for air conditioning if shut-in
on a hot day, sugar water for supplemental feeding and administration of
medications when needed. The hive top feeder is removable and is compatible
either single or double width hives. This design also includes internal spacers
to allow either single width for visibility or double frame width for winter
survivability without requiring the purchase of two observation hives.
Audio Tape - Our Friend the Honeybee
Many years of speaking to groups of all ages has led to the development of a short (15 minutes) but very informative presentation on this marvelous insect. This tape has the same recording on both sides so that it can be put in for continuous play and everyone stopping by for 15 minutes can learn a lot!.(The photo is just part of the gang around a show display.)
Observation hives are generally
special order and custom built to your requirements and desires. Please contact
us to develop specifications for your application. We build the observation hives in the
off-season of beekeeping, the winter, so orders are normally accepted September
through December and delivered in March through April. Please allow six to eight weeks for
delivery, minimum! Quality will not
be rushed! Order is only accepted
with the cashing of check or written acceptance with shipping date.
Ordering Maintenance Booklet or standard
Observation Hives. - Order form with
prices
HOME - Back to Sweet
Pines Apiary home page or look for us at www.tianca.com.
Contact Us:
- email:lackeyray@tianca.com
- snail mail: Sweet Pines
Apiary, 1260B
- phone: (631)567-1936
- www: http://www.tianca.com