This is the second year that I have set this up for our PA State Farm show. It was also setup for a local museum for their bee weekend last summer. It works real well as the bees can get "out" (into the aquarium) and seem to just go about business as usual in the observation hive. The OH has access to the outside in my home so in between being set up, as pictured, they can (if weather permits, but it hasn't) go outside.
It was setup for a week at the farm show, I brought it home for a few days and feed a few pounds of syrup from the top (they don't seem to want to take it from the side feeder), cleaned up the aquarium glass(there was some streaking on the glass) and now it is set up at a retirement home for another week. I checked them today and they are doing great. The residents love watching them and are not ready to send the home. They are now able to pick out the queen as she wonders around laying a few eggs. They (the bees, not the residents) have raised some brood, maybe equal to 1/2 of a medium frame, and today I noticed some of that has hatched. I am going to try a second week at the home and just keep a close eye on them, but as of now they show no signs of problems.
I made a miniature hive for the entrance this year and it has worked well. Everything is screwed down to the table and the clear tubes have a screw through them to keep them from being pulled out.
They seem to know what the weather is outside as they become very active on the few warm days we had recently. They also become very active mid afternoon (even with no access to outside light) and then go back to normal by early evening.
Thanks for looking....Jim