Observation Hives with Frank Linton (288)

288 - Observation Hives with Frank Linton

Don Fry: Hey, this is Don and Sabina Fry. We're from Locust Grove, Georgia, and we're here at the North American Honey Bee Expo. We just signed up for Hives for Heroes. We found lots of things to spend money on, and just like to say welcome everybody to Beekeeping Today Podcast.

[music]

Jeff Ott: Welcome to Beekeeping Today Podcast, presented by Betterbee, your source for beekeeping news, information, and entertainment. I'm Jeff Ott.

Becky Masterman: I'm Becky Masterman.

Global Patties: Today's episode is brought to you by the bee nutrition superheroes at Global Patties. Family-operated and buzzing with passion, Global Patties crafts protein-packed patties that'll turn your hives into powerhouse production. Picture this. Strong colonies, booming brood, and honey flowing like a sweet river. It's super protein for your bees, and they love it. Check out their buffet of patties, tailor-made for your bees in your specific area. Head over to www.globalpatties.com and give your bees the nutrition they deserve.

Jeff: Hey, a quick shout out to all of our sponsors whose support allows us to bring you this podcast each week without resorting to a fee-based subscription. We don't want that, and we know you don't either. Be sure to check out all of our content on the website. There, you can read up on all of our guests, read our blog on the various aspects and observations about beekeeping, search for, download, and listen to over 250 past episodes, read episode transcripts, leave comments and feedback on each episode, and check on podcast specials from our sponsors. You can find it all at www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com.

Hey, thanks a lot, Don and Sabina there in Locust Grove, Georgia. That was a great opening. You know Becky, the Frys are our last North American Honey Bee Expo openers that we have.

Becky: Oh, wow. That is just a treasure trove, right? Of openers that you received. Now I think the only thing you could do is start a countdown to the next North American Honey Bee Expo.

Jeff: That would be great. I think that we should keep that in mind, and people should start thinking about what their opening would be if they record with us at the NAHBE conference in January.

Becky: Some people who can't wait to record, who do not want us to run out of listener openings, should really put it at the top of their to-do list. Get that opener recorded, and email it to us. Make our day.

Jeff: You can get it to us before NAHBE 25, and [laughs] we can hear it before NAHBE 25 because we are running low on openers. Folks, get them in here. Becky, I'm looking for today's guest. Have you ever had an observation hive? Have you ever managed an observation hive?

Becky: I managed lots of observation hives when I was doing my graduate research. After that, when I was running the Bee Squad, we managed observation hives for people to actually enjoy. I've done them for two reasons. To collect data and then to help educate the public.

Jeff: That'll be interesting because I've never considered an observation hive just for research as opposed to one that's just for a hobby or for pleasure. That'll be interesting.

Becky: Jeff, the big difference is that if you're doing it for research, chances are you have to make trips in the middle of the night to collect data, which is what I did. That's what I did in my 20s. You have a history with observation hives, don't you?

Jeff: Yes. Well, thanks for remembering. That's nice. Actually, my very first beehive, and for longtime listeners have heard me tell this story before, my very first beehive was an observation hive my dad and I built in the basement. Actually we assembled. It was a root kit. I lived in Lakewood, Ohio, and my bedroom was upstairs, and I had a little tube going out the window, and the observation hive sat right there on my study desk. I guess that was one way my parents figured they'd get me to stay in my room and study. [laughs]

Becky: I would just be studying those bees, I think. I had-

Jeff: Oh, it was fun.

Becky: That's the thing. I remember the first time I met our guest today, I think we got three words in and he started talking to me about observation hives. What an enthusiast Frank is.

Jeff: Well, I look forward to talking to Frank coming up. First, let's hear from our sponsors.

Strong Microbials: Strong Microbials presents an exciting new product, SuperFuel. The probiotic fondant that serves as nectar on demand for our honey bees. SuperFuel is powered by three remarkable bacteria known as bacilli, supporting bees and breaking down complex substances for easy digestion and nutrient absorption. This special energy source provides all the essential amino acids, nutrients, polyphenols, and bioflavonoids, just like natural flower nectar.

Vital for the bees' nutrition and overall health, SuperFuel is the optimal feed for dearth periods, overwinter survival, or whenever supplemental feeding is needed. A big plus is the patties do not get hive beetle larvae, so it offers all bioavailable nutrients without any waste. Visit strongmicrobials.com now to discover more about SuperFuel and get your probiotic fondant today.

Jeff: While you're at the Strong Microbials site, make sure you click on and subscribe to The Hive, their regular newsletter full of interesting beekeeping facts and product updates. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Sitting across this big virtual Beekeeping Today Podcast table, stretching from one end of the country to the other, is Frank Linton. Frank, welcome to the show.

Frank Linton: Thank you. Glad to be here.

Becky: Frank, I'm so excited that you joined us. I'm just going to share. I remember when I first met you, and I remember not just your enthusiasm for one of the topics we're going to discuss today, observation hives, but I just remember thinking, this is a really smart man, and we're really lucky that he likes honey bees. I'm just going to say that before we let you introduce yourself. Now--

[laughter]

Becky: Now that you're blushing-

Frank: Yes.

[laughter]

Becky: - could you tell us how you got into beekeeping?

Frank: Sure. My grandfather, who was a small dairy farmer in Vermont, had a few beehives on the corner of his pasture. He introduced me to the bees in the 1950s, early '60s, and then I did nothing with them until 2005, when I got my first hive, which was an observation hive.

Jeff: Did you always have a fascination with them, keep your one toe in the water?

Frank: No, not really. I went on to a variety of other things. A lot of life, but I got more interested in all kinds of life eventually. From the origin of life, to interplanetary life, to viruses and multicellular life. Life is pretty interesting, it turns out.

Jeff: As they say, life will find a way. That's for sure. Becky and I were talking, we both have a little bit of background with observation hives. Becky really has a lot more observation hive background than I do. My first beehive was an observation hive, an old AI root kit from way back in the '70s my dad and I built in the basement. We invited you on the show to talk about observation hives primarily, but you obviously can talk about many other things. People look at observation hives as a great conversation tool and a great learning tool. What brought observation hives to your attention and fascination?

Frank: The thing that interested me was bees as social insects. Ants are social insects and termites are social insects, but you can't really see much about what they're doing, but bees, you can see everything. I think about observation hives, and when you say observation hive, different things come to mind for different people. There's sort of temporary ones and permanent ones. You might see a temporary one in a farmers market or a permanent one in a science museum or a natural history museum. You might see a permanent one in somebody's house, and that's what I focused on mentally in my mind, is how to set up and run and what you get from a permanent observation hive in your house.

You could put a temporary one out on your porch in the shade, just a one frame hive starting off with some eggs and do nothing in terms of intervening with it for a couple of months, and that would work, too. There's a lot of different places for observation hives.

Jeff: For our listeners who are new to beekeeping, new to the world of observation hives, can you provide a fundamental description of what is an observation hive?

Frank: Sure. The main thing is it's a beehive with glass walls. If you pick the right one, every single bit of honeycomb in the hive will be exposed to your view. You can see what the bees are doing, and you can see what they're doing daytime, nighttime, rain, sunshine, summer, winter, all year round, and it's a very good way to see what they're doing. Not only can you see what they're doing, but you can smell them, and they should smell good. If they don't, you'll know it, and you can hear them. There's really more than just one sense.

Observation hive brings to mind a glass behind an impermeable glass wall. Those hives have got to have vents and air and sound goes through those vents. It's a full-bodied experience. A full sensory experience, I guess we should say.

Jeff: Some people have created special apiary cabins that they can sell and put either observation hives or even AZ type hives. People can go in there, guests can go and sleep in that room and get the sense of the bees, the smells, the sights, the sound. I always thought that would be very relaxing.

Frank: Yes, our local mission belief aimed at helping veterans with PTSD and other first responders with PTSD just finished one of those. They just had the open house a month or so ago. They've been working at it for a while. It's got a number of AZ hives in it. I first saw those on a visit to Slovenia a few years ago. They're cool.

Becky: We've had Monica on the show, and it was just so exciting to hear how much she has done in a very short period of time. She's done a lot. Frank, what do you tell people who say they only want to have an observation hive, that's it?

Frank: You can almost do it. You can't quite.

[laughter]

Frank: You can't quite. You really need to have a backup hive. If you have a buddy with a beehive, then that would work out just fine. I tried with just an observation hive. Fortunately, my mentor was kind to me-

[laughter]

Frank: - and let me get bees from her or deliver excess bees to her when I needed. The other thing is, you learn a lot about bees, but you don't learn much about beekeeping, if you have just an observation hive. I'd say you should have a hive or two along with your observation hive. It makes more practical sense, but at least access to another hive whenever you need it.

Becky: Or you could learn about the art of swarming, if you refuse to get that outside hive. [laughs]

Frank: Yes.

Becky: Just focus all your attention on watching them leave, watching them raise their new queens, watching them leave, getting lots of opportunities to treat for mites.

Jeff: Multiple times a season.

Frank: Yes. I remember going away with mine and telling my spouse at the time, I said, "Don't worry about it. They won't swarm at this time of year."

Becky: Oh-oh.

[laughter]

Jeff: I won't ask you how that ended.

[laughter]

Frank: Yes, it was four pound swarm. It was from a two frame hive.

[laughter]

Becky: One of the things we did recognize though is that what a great way, if you are, if you do have an observation hive set up at a museum or nature center, what a great way to teach about the queen and reproduction, because you don't necessarily have to put a queen in there. You can let them raise their own queen, and that's giving them another opportunity to learn about the cells in the hive. I think I'm going to get in trouble from Jeff, but one of the things, you've written two books, one on setting up observation hives, but the other is the hive tour.

Can you just tell us a little bit about the reason you wrote each of those books? One you wrote by yourself, and the other is co-written, but if you could share that, because I think that tells such an interesting story.

Frank: The first one I published was The Observation Hive Handbook. I did that because Kim Flottum had put out a book on observation hives with, I think it was Mr. Webster, Dr. Webster from Kentucky. Anyway, and it was really a collection of articles. It wasn't bad, I have it. Then there was another book by Schouler published in England quite a few years ago. When I looked at those, I thought to myself, I could do a better job than that.

[laughter]

Frank: So I did, and I started on it, and I talked to Kim about it and he said, "Yes." He said, "I'm not going to republish that book." That was encouraging, because I didn't really want to compete with him, because I know him and liked him. When he said that he wasn't really planning on republishing it, that gave me the go-ahead, and I self-published it. Then Cornell University Press heard about it and invited me to give it to them and turn it into a real books, [chuckles] you could say. That's how that one started.

I thought at that time, there were maybe 100,000 backyard beekeepers in the US, and I thought, "Boy, if I could sell 1% of that audience, that would be 1,000 books. It would be worth my time to write the book if it were to sell eventually 1,000 books." I think it's just sold 2,000. That's gravy there in terms of reaching people, in terms of royalties.

[laughter]

Frank: Yes, you're laughing. That's right. That's what-- Royalties are a joke.

Jeff: I have to think that-- I want to think. I choose to believe that when I bought my copy of the book, that put you over the 2,000 mark.

[laughter]

Jeff: I choose to believe that. That's the world I live in.

Frank: Okay. It turns out, I was just talking to them, the Cornell University Press, they said it's now a publish-on-demand book, so it isn't going to go out of print. It'll be there as long as there's a demand for it.

Becky: I'm hoping after listeners hear this, they're going to recognize why they need to get this book. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but go ahead and tell us about the Hive Tour.

Frank: Our local nature center, the Brookside Nature Center in Montgomery County, Maryland, our club, the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association, has had an observation hive in the nature center for years and years and years. I decided, upon my retirement, that I would take on my volunteer job as the main caretaker of that observation hive. The club also has an apiary at the nature center. It's a nice setup. Then, once we had a new hive in place and it was doing well, and people were interested in it, we started thinking about, how do you get somebody to stand there and talk about bees? A docent, basically. One of the people who volunteered was a club member who knew nothing about honey bees.

[laughter]

Frank: I thought, "Well, how's that going to work?" So I'd slapped together a bunch of pictures off the web, and some very brief descriptions about what they were doing, so she could have something to look at and explain what was going on in the hive. The people at the nature center liked that and laminated it, and made a real nice booklet out of it. I thought, "You know, there's more than one place in the world that would be interested in that." That was the basic design of the book. The photos of what you could see bees-- Everything you could see bees doing with a naked eye in a beehive. Okay?

We pretty much stuck to that, and very little text. We started off with a lot of my photos, the ones I had in the other book, and others and others, but Phil Frank is a professional photographer. [chuckles]

Becky: Oh, nice.

Frank: So I asked him to be involved, and it ended up being all his pictures other than the mites and the dead bees and a few things in the back. Basically they're all his pictures, and he's really good. Of course, being a professional, and he has had an observation hive in his house for many years now. He's going to be doing some classes on taking pictures of bees with your iPhone at the upcoming EAS as well.

Jeff: Oh, let's take this opportunity to take a quick break, and then we'll come back and talk a little bit more about observation hives.

Bee Smart Designs: Are you a smart beekeeper looking to stay ahead of the curve? Introducing Bee Smart Designs, the ultimate line of innovative, modular, and interchangeable hive system and cool tools. As a listener of the Beekeeping Today Podcast, you understand the importance of staying informed on the latest advancements in beekeeping. This is where Bee Smart system comes in. Designed with you and your bees in mind, our core hive system works with all standard Langstroth equipment, and is 8 and 10 frame compatible. Made in the USA using recycled and American sourced materials, our products are ready to use.

Visit beesmartdesigns.com to explore our groundbreaking offerings and links to your favorite dealer. Bee Smart Designs, next generation beekeeping products for the modern beekeeper.

[music]

Betterbee: Give your buzzing buddies the ultimate upgrade with BetterComb. Accelerate your bee colonies growth and honey production with our innovative solution. Made from a synthetic wax that mirrors the qualities of natural bees' wax, BetterComb offers a clean slate for your bees to thrive without any pesticide or disease residue. Don't compromise on quality. Opt for BetterComb and watch your colonies flourish. Learn more at betterbee.com/bettercomb.

Becky: Welcome back, everybody. Frank, I have to ask, when you read Hive Tour from the beginning to the end, I'm wondering if you get the same sense that I do. Is that every brand new beekeeper should read this book, because it is very little text, but it's very important text, and tied to these pictures that tell a great story. Was that your intention at all?

Frank: Yes, it was aimed both at new beekeepers and at the general public. We took great pains to make sure that it was technically accurate. We even got Randy Oliver to review it, and he found quite a few things that we fixed to make his points. He was right on most of them. At the same time, I used to teach English as a second language, and I'm pretty much aware of language. We wrote it at the eighth grade level. So anybody can read this book. Anybody who's in the upper grades, junior high, and even younger, some of them.

That was the audience. The general public and people who are visiting an observation hive, but it also stands alone, and then new beekeepers. One of the things Phil and I both noticed was that when beekeepers came to our house, they would see stuff in the observation hive that they didn't know what they were looking at, or had never seen in their own hives. That was a key thing.

Becky: Yes, the observation hive provides this protection for new beekeepers, because they don't have to worry about holding the frame, and having the bees flying around, and what they need to see and getting the frame back in. It's an interesting support for them to be able to really get to know what's going on in the hive.

Jeff: You both have sold me. I think I should get a new observation hive, but the market has changed. If I want to buy a new observation hive, if I want to build one, are there good ones available commercially, or do I need to find plans online to build one? What do you recommend someone who wants to get an observation hive?

Frank: Yes, I think one thing to remember is that the purpose of the observation hive is for you to observe the bees. It's not there to give the bees a optimal home for honey production or brood rearing or overwintering. It's going to be, from the bees' perspective, suboptimal, but not so suboptimal that they will abscond, but not really what they would choose. The point of it is that it's there for you, not for them. As long as they tolerate it, that's good. The key thing is the hive would just be one frame wide. If there are two frames side by side, there's space between those frames where the bees will do all the interesting stuff, and you won't see it because they're in there. They're hidden.

One frame wide. I can't believe people buy these hives that are two, three, four frames wide. You can make it high, you can put frames end to end, but one frame wide, and you don't need that many frames. My two deep frame hive I had for 10 years, and the bees were perfectly happy summer and winter. They did tend to swarm, of course, but they do anyway, no matter how big your hive is. There's that. The other thing is a really good light. Okay? Whatever your hive is, you can see what the bees are doing in there. In selecting the hives, use the same size frames in the hive that you purchase or build as the frames in your other hives.

So you can swap frames back and forth. Okay? Because you'll be taking out excess brood, or maybe brood and queen, and letting them rear their own, or you may want to restart the hive and bring in a frame from your other hives. That's key. I see some really no frame, non-standard, multi-frame wide hives. You just wonder, comes with the bees in them, no experience required, right? Well, you still have to do beekeeping. The whole thing about no experience required is, I think, a terrible thing to say to people. I've seen both good and bad hives sold by people who are making that claim.

The other thing is you will have to take care of the bees in that hive, which means you're going to have to take the bees, the hive outside your house and set it up somewhere and work on it. You need to be able to shut all the openings on it, take out the feeder, close that up, close the entrance, close the window so bees can't get in, and take it outside and work on it. What I do out there is take the frames out. I'll get into that later. In terms of selecting a hive, you need to be able to move it in and out. That's the key.

Jeff: Is it safe to buy commercial observation hives today?

Frank: The ones from bee companies, yes. The ones from just various online places, then think about those criteria that I mentioned. They're also listed on my observation hive website called thebeepeeker.com. It's not beekeeper, it's beepeeker.

Jeff: Peeker is P-E-A-K-E-R? Or P-E-E?

Frank: No, peek, as in observing, peek.

Jeff: Okay.

Frank: P-E-E-K.

Jeff: Well, we'll make sure we have that link in the show notes.

Frank: Okay. I list the things you should look for when you're selecting a hive. There are a number of designs available. I once saw a hive that was 10 deep frames on casters. There was five vertical ones and then a nuc box on the top.

Becky: Oh my gosh.

Frank: They roll it out the door to work on the hive and then rolled it back in. [laughs]

Jeff: Oh my gosh.

Frank: You can use-- One deep frame is enough for short term, I would say, beekeeping. Two deep frames is enough for three mediums you can get from our bee supply companies and other places. For permanent installations. For portable, there's a kind of hive that's now very popular that I don't quite get, because all you need for a temporary portable hive is one deep frame. You can buy nice ones on Etsy, that are designed for that temporary portable show. This common model has a nuc with a frame display above it. The idea of that is you can keep the family of bees together while you're displaying the hives, the frame with a queen on it.

That's good, but what tends to happen is that the frame under the glass gets overcrowded because bees can go through the queen excluder. Perhaps a modification would be to put some screen under that, so that the number of bees on the exposed frame couldn't change. At that point, why do you need to carry that nuc box around if you're just going to have the queen outside for a few hours? Just put a regular cover on it and carry the top around and you're all set. Of course, if the weight is not an issue for you, then it is nice to keep the family together, especially if they're going to be at a fair or something for days and days.

Jeff: This is a time of year when many fairs, county fairs and state fairs, are gearing up. You would recommend the single frame type arrangement for those fair beekeeping groups?

Frank: Yes. There's one that's, I think it's sold by Betterbee, that's two deeps or three mediums. It's also quite portable. A single frame is good enough because you can pick a frame out of the hive that's got open brood, cap brood, honey and pollen, and with or without the queen. You can show people pretty much everything on a single frame if you select it carefully.

Jeff: It probably would be good to mark that queen for an observation hive. Especially if there's kids going to be involved.

Becky: Frank, how do you recommend that people keep the bees cool if they're moving them to the fair or anywhere, actually?

Frank: Keep them out of the sun is key.

[laughter]

Frank: I've seen online some stories on, "Oh, I took my observation hive to the farmers market and it melted."

Becky: Oh, no.

Frank: Yes. So don't do that. Keep it in the sun. Of course, make sure there's plenty of ventilation for the hive, and give them all the water they want. Then they can manage the temperature inside if it's not exposed to the sun.

Becky: Do you give them water via ice cubes on top, or do you have another way to do it?

Frank: I hadn't thought about that. That's a good idea. Typically just a spritzer bottle and spray them, but an ice cube would do it, too.

Becky: You can add that to the next edition of [crosstalk].

Frank: Okay, thanks.

[laughter]

Jeff: A reader tip by Dr. Becky Masterman.

Becky: [laughs]

Jeff: Okay. We have an observation hive and we've set it up just like any other hive. You want to get it painted and everything before you introduce bees. Just real quick on the side, do you recommend glass or a plastic side?

Frank: Mine came with a plexiglass. Plexiglass is light and strong. It also scratches easily. If you're afraid of the glass being broken, then plexiglass is the thing, and you can replace it if you can't clean it without scratching it. Eventually, I replaced the plexiglass in mine with window glass, which was fine in a private home. The one we had at the public nature center, we used tempered glass in it. Those are your options. The hard part is once the bees cover the inside of the glass or plexiglass with propolis, you have to get it off without scratching it. That's not necessarily so easy.

Jeff: I remember, I believe it was Jim Tew, who does the Honey Bee Obscura Podcast, relating a story of an observation hive with plexiglass, and the plexiglass tended to bow in on the internal frame and that caused problems, too. I believe it was Jim who told me he shies away from plexiglass. I suppose that depends on thickness and all.

Frank: Yes, I never saw that, but yes, it's possible.

Jeff: We have the hive, we've got the glass. I guess we need bees. Well, no, no, before we get the bees, we got to get permission to bring it in the house, but assuming we got permission to bring it in the house, what is the-

Becky: Have you gotten permission to bring it in the house for this next round, Jeff?

Jeff: Yes, we'll talk about that later.

Becky: Okay, just checking.

Jeff: What is the best location in a house for an observation hive?

Frank: There's two things to consider. The inside and the outside. In the house, it's great to have it in a convenient spot. If you have a office where you work at home, having it right by your desk is just super. I had mine at first in the guest bedroom and then-

[laughter]

Jeff: How'd that go over, Frank? I have to ask you.

[laughter]

Jeff: I'm sorry, you'll be sleeping with the bees tonight.

[laughter]

Becky: I'm sorry, what a great opportunity. You can charge money for that, I think.

Frank: That's true. Sometimes I'd put the cover on it, sometimes I would hang a photo over it.

[laughter]

Becky: Sometimes I would just let it be there, depending on the people and the season, because in the summertime, they're quite noisy, and in the winter, they're dead silent. If you didn't know, you wouldn't even know they were there. Then when my wife passed away, I had it in the dining room, which was also my home office. That worked fine, too. If you make the tube from the observation hive to the exit be a flexible plastic tube, and then you can swing, and the bees don't care if you move the hive around, as long as the entrance doesn't change.

I did that, and I had it sticking out from the wall, so I could see both sides of the hive easily. Then if I needed the space, I could just swing the whole stand in the hive up against the wall and use the space with the hive took up very little space that way. That worked. You don't want, you've got a three-year-old running around with a Tonka truck going, "Bonk, bonk, bonk." You don't want to do that on a glass that's easily accessible. I noticed that bees don't care about light. The first couple of times you flick on the lights they'll, "Ooh," but then they don't care. They adjust to light, they adjust to smells, they adjust to noise.

The only thing they don't like is being bumped. That's about it. Oh, and then the other thing is in the winter, you've got to keep that hive at least 65 degrees Fahrenheit. When it was in the guest bedroom and I'd go away for a while, and turn the thermostat for the house down, I'd leave the space heater in that room where it's set to come on at 65, right beside the beehive. Then they do fine all winter. It's not a problem for them to overwinter if it's warm. They can't cluster. If you keep them at 65, they're fine.

Convenient for you on the inside. Convenient on the outside means, where are they going to go when they come out the entrance and fly off? If they're right in the middle of your deck, that's probably not a good thing, okay? You can put a tube, if that was the only-- If that was the best spot on the inside, you could put a tube going up or out across the deck, or something like that to get them. You have to think about where the bees go on the outside. You don't want them flying into people.

Jeff: Is there a limit on how long of a tube you can use? Do they get tired of, "My goodness, this tunnel takes forever."

Frank: No. I had a temporary large hive I was storing for somebody, in the middle of my deck. I had a PVC pipe that was maybe 4 inches in diameter, that ran all the way over and maybe a foot or so out past the deck railing. They learned to come and go through that pipe with no problem. They even bearded on the-

Becky: Oh my gosh, I love that. [laughs]

Frank: - up past the railing out there. The hive was right in the middle of the deck, up against the house, but in the middle of the space, and it worked just fine.

Jeff: We have a location, we assume permission, we have a hive, is there a bee that's better for an observation hive than another?

Frank: I don't think so. I used whatever was around and that seemed to work.

Jeff: The actual nest bee would be interesting though. Maybe not next to your neighbors, but it would be an interesting. Anyways, that's a little-- Sorry, Frank, go ahead.

[laughter]

Becky: You also need a cork for the outside tube.

Frank: Yes.

Becky: Before you disconnect the observation hive. You only need to forget that once, and when you realize how important that is.

Frank: Yes. That's the last one you open. You come back, you bring the hive back in the house, you reconnect everything, then you go outside and take that one away in the forage.

Becky: Yes.

Frank: Pouring in.

Becky: Get your timing right on that cork.

Jeff: I guess, well, that's an important point for location though. You need to be able to reach the end of the tube, or the inlet or the outlet. The entrance to the hive.

Frank: Not necessarily. I blocked it from the inside. The other thing is, if you have-- I made the hole not in the wall of the house, but in a board in the window. I just put a board in the window with a hole in it. Once the bees are adapted to that hole, you can open the window and the bees will not come in. They go in the hole. If you wanted to block it, you could open the window, block the hole, close the window. That would work just fine. They know where they live, and it's in that hole, not in that room.

Jeff: I'm not going to hit that glass again.

Frank: No.

Becky: Frank, I'm hearing that it might help if you're an engineer, and you're able to design a couple of modifications.

Frank: Yes, I went to engineering school for quite a few years.

[laughter]

Frank: In terms of stuff I've got in the house, I've got a handsaw and I've got an electric drill, and that's it. I could cut a piece of wood to fit the window and put some insulation at the top to keep the bees, to seal the window up. The window worked just fine. Then with the electric drill, I could drill a hole in the board and maybe my own plexiglass feeder with-- You can cut plexiglass with any old saw, or you can cut it with a handsaw, or you can have like a hacksaw, or you can cut it and just scratch it and snap it and glue it. I would say I'm handy, but I don't have power tools, and that has always worked for me.

Jeff: All right. So we have our hive set up and the bees are coming and going, working well. Can you make a couple of recommendations of, if you're going to do an observation hive, make sure you do this, these three things. What would those three things, top three things be?

Frank: Yes. Make sure it's only one frame wide.

[laughter]

Frank: Your standard frames, and get a real good light. I can't believe how many people don't have good light on their observation hive. Pull out a light and shine it and say, "Oh."

Jeff: You don't mean like a built-in light on the hive, you mean a desk light next to the--

Frank: Yes, a desk light or a floor lamp. I use the floor lamp. A nice floor lamp that I could move around from one side to the other. Something that's convenient and will illuminate it really well when you want to see it. They really don't mind the light.

Jeff: I remember being told, when I got my observation hive as a kid, and it came with a little Masonite type side covers that if you didn't use those, they would cover up the glass with propolis. That's not the case, is what you're saying.

Frank: They cover it either way.

[laughter]

Jeff: Considering the recent research on the propolis envelope and everything else, that would-- It's not because it's glass, it's just because it's the side of the cavity.

Frank: Yes.

Jeff: Oh. Oopsy, I love it when all these little different data points come together in my brain. It's like a spark of life. Like, "Oh, okay. Okay."

Frank: Oh, one more thing. There's two kinds of observations you can make with this hive. One is, what are the bees doing right now? Tom Seeley studied individual bees, and Frisch did with his discovery of the waggle dance and all of that. You can also look at how the colony changes over the course of the year, and from year to year. I made a practice of taking a picture of each side of the hive every Sunday morning, year after year. You get a a perspective of how the colony changes over time, and not just those individual behaviors. There are two levels of observation there that are different, and both of them are worth paying attention to.

Jeff: That would be fun even with today's cameras and GoPro cameras and stuff. You could just set it up there with a time lapse timer, once a day shot, and just have a 365 frame day, or a shot of the changes in the life of a frame. I've got to ask you, we talked about the top things to do. What are the big mistakes people make with observation hives?

Frank: Especially in a public place, an observation hive is more work than a regular hive. The inspections are easy, because you don't have to open the hive up, but it's typically smaller, and so it takes more attention, requires more attention. You have to do stuff more often. Usually, it's just removing the excess bees, but you need to do it. You can remove the excess bees, or cage the queen, or take the queen out altogether, and let them raise a new one, which is the most fun, but taking care of the bees is key.

Jeff: In my social media feed, and however algorithm shows it, every once in a while I see a hive that's observation hive, I guess you could call it, that people mount on the side and the wall, and they're in hexagonal shapes. You can basically build your honeycomb pattern based on these modules, and there's little tubes that connect each little-- Would you recommend something like that?

Frank: In my presentation on observation hives, I give that one as a good example of a bad design.

[laughter]

Frank: It is modular, and it's cute, it's attractive, and-

Jeff: It looks cool.

Frank: - yes, it looks great, and that's one of those that comes with the bees in it, and no experience is required. I think it's three frames wide, but it's a top bar hive apparently, so it's three top bars wide. So once the bees filled it up and then died, you're stuck. It's not really made to be opened.

Becky: Oh, wow.

Frank: It's just a mess. Now, it could be modified. Somebody could make a different version of it, which was one real frame that was both right side up on the bottom half and flipped over on the top half, so the hexagonal thing still worked, and it still could be modular, and you could be a beekeeper and have the concept, but as it is, I would not recommend that particular design for those reasons.

Jeff: Looks cool, but stay away.

Frank: Another one that I don't recommend, made by a friend of mine, it was a full-size top bar.

Becky: Oh-oh, Frank.

Jeff: A soon-to-be former friend of yours.

[laughter]

Frank: A full-size top bar hive made of plexiglass.

Becky: Oh my gosh.

Frank: He had it in his house on top of his TV.

[laughter]

Becky: Oh my gosh.

Frank: I said, "Stuart, how do you work this hive? How do you get it outside to work it?" He said, "I don't."

Becky: Oh, no.

Jeff: Oh.

Frank: He closed all the doors to the room, opened the windows, and worked it right there in the dining room.

Becky: No.

Frank: Yes. What else could he do?

Jeff: He was a confirmed bachelor. He was a bachelor, wasn't he?

Becky: I was going to say.

Frank: No, he had four kids in a little tiny house.

Becky: No.

[laughter]

Frank: Yes, it was great.

Jeff: Well, more power to you, Stuart.

Frank: Don't make it too big.

[laughter]

Jeff: What was that?

Frank: Don't make it too big.

[laughter]

Becky: Oh my gosh.

Jeff: We've blown through this hour very quickly. Is there anything we haven't asked you about that you want to tell our listeners about observation hives or the tour of the hive itself?

Frank: No. I think we've pretty much covered it. The book is out there, the website's out there. I'll be giving a talk on observation hives at EAS this year. One way or another, you can find me.

Jeff: We'll have the links to the book, and to your website, and any other information in the show notes and on our website. Frank Linton, the book's title is, The Observation Hive Handbook: Studying Honeybees at Home. It's a really cool book. I liked it. I enjoyed it. I just need to work on that permission part. You did not have that chapter on that, but well, maybe next edition.

[laughter]

Frank: Every home should have one.

[laughter]

Jeff: Thanks a lot, Frank.

Frank: Thank you. I'm very pleased that you're interested in this subject.

Becky: Absolutely. We'll also have a link to the Hive Tours book. Frank, I hope you come back, because I think you have more to tell us about your beekeeping journey. It would be a great continued discussion.

Frank: Be glad to do that. Thank you for inviting me.

Jeff: Frank was very observant about his hives.

Becky: Oh, good choice of a verb.

Jeff: Oh, it's horrible.

Becky: Excellent.

Jeff: It's a bad, bad, bad. It's not even a bad dad joke. It's just a bad joke.

[laughter]

Jeff: No, I enjoyed having Frank on. It is. If you're any interested in observation hives, that is the book to get.

Becky: The thing that I love about his mission is that if you're not interested in observation hives, he wants you to listen up because he thinks you should be, because he just thinks they're so valuable in order to become a better beekeeper. If you give him a chance, he will make that argument. I think you're right. He needs to add a chapter on how to get anybody you live with to agree that the home needs an observation hive. My husband supports me so much, but I just wouldn't even know how to start that conversation.

[laughter]

Jeff: I have no help there for you, Becky.

Becky: Yes. [laughs]

Jeff: Let us know, would you?

Becky: Yes, I think there would be some negotiation with like, he would get a certain amount of ice cream and cookies every single day for the duration of the experiment. So--

Jeff: I thought one of the funniest things Frank talked about was putting the observation hive in the guest bedroom. To somebody who didn't know you and you brought-- They were staying as a guest to your house, how would you approach the subject? "Oh, and by the way, you will be sleeping with 3,000 others."

Becky: "So be careful because--" All I thought about is like, that is an Airbnb experience. I bet somebody could make some money off of that right now. [laughs]

Jeff: We've had guests on who are working to create some sort of resort type bee resort experience where they do have those bee huts. That would be fun. I would do that.

Becky: Yes, a beekeeper would do that, but would a non-beekeeper do that? That's the question.

Jeff: There's always that. You have to make money with these enterprises, don't you?

Becky: You'd have to seriously put your business plan together and maybe do some test marketing of the idea. [laughs]

Jeff: I'm glad Frank was here. Really, listeners, as you're considering your summer and learning about bees, you would really do yourself a favor by getting an observation hive and watching what goes on.

Becky: A first step, and he mentioned it, but I don't know if we stressed it enough, but a first step is getting that single frame observation hive where you can go into your colony, take a frame out for a couple of hours, bring that observation hive to an outreach event, and then same day, you bring those bees back and put them into your colony. That's a really good way to do some observation hive training. Maybe before you decide to bring one in your house, just get used to the whole process of caring for that hive just for a few hours at first.

Jeff: [chuckles] The opportunity for that might be at the summer fairs and the fall fairs. Hey, everybody, wait just one minute. We have some late breaking news.

Becky: Exciting observation hive updates. We were talking to our friends at Betterbee, and we mentioned that Frank mentioned their observation hives specifically. They are offering our listeners a discount on observation hives.

Jeff: That's the great thing of working with a fantastic sponsor like Betterbee. They're quick and responsive. Yes, check the show notes, and we'll have the observation hive discount code, and you can pick up an observation hive for the fall fair.

Becky: It's while supplies last, and it's going to expire August 31st, 2024. If you are listening in 2028, you can't ask Betterbee for that discount.

Jeff: Or you can ask, but--

Becky: That's true, you can always ask, right? [chuckles]

Jeff: Before we go, did I tell you, speaking of county fairs, that I once won second place for my observation hive at the Medina County Fair in Ohio?

Becky: [gasps] That is amazing, Jeff. Are there any pictures?

Jeff: Yes, there are pictures. Funny you should ask. It's kind of blurry, but if I make it small enough, it looks sharp, so I'll put it in the show notes. [laughs]

Becky: Awesome. Is there a ribbon involved?

Jeff: A red ribbon. Yes.

Becky: Oh, fantastic. Okay, this just keeps getting better and better. A discount and you receiving an observation hive award. This is fantastic.

Jeff: You may not recognize me with the hat I'm wearing and long hair, but that's a different issue for another time.

Becky: That's another episode?

Jeff: That's another episode. That about wraps it up for this episode. Before we go, I want to encourage our listeners to follow us and rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts, wherever you download and stream the show. Even better, write a review and let other beekeepers looking for a new podcast know what you like. You can get there directly from our website by clicking on the reviews along the top of any webpage. We want to thank our regular episode sponsors, Betterbee, Global Patties, Strong Microbials, and Northern Bee Books for their generous support.

Finally, and most importantly, we want to thank you, the Beekeeping Today Podcast listener for joining us on this show. Feel free to leave us questions and comments at the leave a comment section under each episode on the website. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks a lot, everybody.

[music]

Jeff: Hey, Becky, are you still there?

Becky: I'm here.

Jeff: You know what they say about the end of summer and summer doldrums?

Becky: Especially when the flowers dry up and the bees are hungry.

Jeff: That big dearth. I think we need to do something special.

Becky: For the beekeepers?

Jeff: For the beekeepers out there. I have, sitting in my Beekeeping Today Podcast storeroom, five Beekeeping Today Podcast pints. Now, you can put your beer in it, you can put your orange juice in it, you can put-

Becky: Lemonade.

Jeff: - lemonade, or sweet tea. For those first five listeners who email us at questionsatbeekeepingtodaypodcast.com, it will be yours.

Becky: Lucky beekeepers.

Jeff: Friends and employees of Beekeeping Today Podcast hosts are not eligible to play.

Becky: Unlucky employee of the podcast.

Jeff: [laughs]

[00:51:53] [END OF AUDIO]