Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: twb on April 16, 2008, 06:22:39 pm
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I will be starting my first obs hive soon. Frames of bees will come from my own hive(s) but I am not sure what to take. Three deeps make up the obs hive until next year when I will be down to four mediums if plans go according to schedule. Do I want open brood and queenie in lowest frame, then mainly sealed brood and then a frame of honey with some open cells for laying or storage? Could I just put in a starter strip in the upper frame position and be ok? (that is my first choice)--But in that case I'd need honey in the middle frame with capped brood correct? How many shakes of bees to conclude--one frame? two?
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sounds like yours is just a little smaller than the one i will set up. i'll be interested in the answers you get! i had planned on taking 2 frames of brood and bees from a couple of strong hives, and giving them foundation for the rest of it. then feeding until they started to get established. i wanted to let them make their own queen. so far, the weather has been to bad and my hives outside have not built up to the point that i feel comfortable robbing bees and brood from them.
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The main thing is that you want a variety of resources. One frame of emerging brood is nice because it will quickly boost the population to make up for the ones that drift back home. One frame of honey and pollen, or one of each will give them some resources. An empty frame will give them some room. Shake in plenty of bees as half will go back to the hive. If you want them to raise their own queen, make sure there are some eggs and even more extra bees.
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One thing I experienced, and I don't know if it is typical or not, but just in case....
I started with 1 medium of brood and 1 deep of brood.
I put in a frame of capped brood. It turns out that the either it wasn't centered well, or there wasn't enough space between the glass, and the emerging brood had trouble getting out, and a whole bunch of brood died. I ended up taking out that frame and letting them draw their own.
My observation hive overwintered with about 6 lbs of honey and less than one medium frame of bees, and they are still going, so small doesn't matter too much unless they have more room than they can defend.
If you want to watch them build comb then I'd do 1 frame of brood with eggs /w bees, one of capped brood with pollen w/bees, shake 1 or 2 frames in, and then feed them. I think your hive is bigger than mine (I have 2 deep + 1 med frames) so you may want to add more.
I love watching them build comb...
Rick
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Observation hives was the topic that was presented at our monthly beekeeping meeting last evening. The gentleman that gave the presentation, Dr. Dewey Caron, wrote a book about putting together an observation hive. Here is a link to his website, and the book is listed down in his publications if anyone is interested. Dr. Caron also spoke for a bit on CCD, and the research that he was participating in. Very interesting speaker if you ever get a chance to hear him. Seems that where I live, near Baltimore, Maryland, is in the middle of where a lot of that research is being done.
http://ag.udel.edu/enwc/faculty/caron.html
I understand they have a great observation hive in Beltsville, about an hours drive from where I live, so I think we are going to plan an outting to see it in the next few weeks.
Barbara
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http://www.bushfarms.com/beesobservationhives.htm