Observation hives are an unnaturally small size for a colony, and take
more work during the summer, (especially.)    Swarming three times says
they are trying to tell you something!   When they build up and fill the
frames with brood, they experience the swarm impulse due to crowding.
They need more space.
 
   You need to ensure that there are empty frames of cells for the queen
to lay in.  That means removing one or two frames and giving her empty
frames or foundation.  Observation hives will produce many excess frames
of brood this way, and they must be kept weak and with plenty of open
space to not swarm.  Don't worry about giving them two frames of
foundation.  They will draw it out quickly, especially if there is a
honey flow on.  I just removed two full frames of brood and installed
foundation in my three-framer.  They had another frame drawn out in three
days.
 
   The other benefit of an observation hive is that you can see when they
are making queen cells.  That's another sign that something's wrong and
they need more space (or a new queen if the brood pattern is getting
spotty.)  You can learn a lot by just watching them.  (And reading!)
 
 
Gerry and the other Visels at
[log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], or [log in to unmask]
Winnebago, Illinois, USA
---
The best thing about the internet is that you don't have to be either
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On Sat, 21 Jun 1997 13:25:38 +1100 "Best of Bee" <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>From:          L M SMITH <[log in to unmask]>
>
>My husband and I have had an observation hive for a year now, we
>keep it for apitherapy purposes.  We are learning more and more about
>beekeeping and have read several books about it.
>
>Our hive has swarmed three times in the past three weeks.  We caught
>the first swarm and installed it successfully in an outdoor hive and
>today we caught another one in a swarm box.  We don't have another
>hive, so we are scrambling like crazy to get one.  We weren't
>prepared for this, obviously.  Can anyone tell me why we are getting
>so many swarms?  Does it appear likely we may lose our observation
>colony?  It sounds to me like they don't like it there. I just sent
>for the ABC book cause I know we need to do more research.
>
>
>