Indoor Bee Run

[Grandpa Jim]

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

[David LaFerney]

Good job.  That's really cool.

[Grandpa Jim]

        Just brought the hive and  bee run back from the retirement community's lobby today.  It was there for over 2 weeks and the bees look no worse for the experience.  A few dead bees in the live grass that is in the bottom (no more than I would expect), a small amount of streaking on the glass of the aquarium and an observation hive still operating as usual.  They were setup this way since Jan 9 (27 days) with one glass cleaning in between.  Tomarrow they will have access to the outside again but, snow is coming so I don't think they will be fling anytime soon.

        It worked really well as an educational display.  The residents enjoyed observing the hive for more than two weeks. I was told a few, that very seldom come out of their rooms, were out checking the bees on a daily basis.

Jim 

[Sparky]

That is GREAT Jim. It probably gave the residents something to look forward to every day. Maybe you should have offered a few stings to them so they would not forget about the girls so soon.  ;)