Hi all, Garth, Ribac:
 
> In response to Ribac's note on maintaining an observation hive:
>
>
 
One of our rooms in our house is pretty much un-heated (closed door to
the remainder of the house) which I house a three-frame observation hive
attached to a window.  The hive is somewhat warmed by indirect sunlight
during daylight and the hive is wrapped with a layered coating of wool
blankets & cotton towels.  Inbetween the first layer, immediately next
to the 1'st blanket & glass, I've placed a 25W flourescent bulb (75W
light rating) which is covered by aluminum foil (keeps the blanket from
touching the mildly hot bulb).  The hive still stays very dark and the
one side of the hive always stays fairly warm.  This same side is
always  where you'll find the queen, right in the area of the bulb so
I'm guessing the temperature stays about right.
 
I've been feeding them 2:1 sugar/water with a makeshift boardman type of
feeder (off the back of the hive).  Sometimes I'll have to coach them
back into the feeder by dripping a bit of honey down the side of the
hive from one of the air-holes.  They'll travel down the side until they
get close to the feeder and then tell their friends what they've found.
Within about 20-30 minutes the feeder is pretty active (on a
mild-temperature day).  Just let them be on colder days as they just
like to ball up and maintain temperature than collect food.
 
This hive only has about 1000 bees but I don't think a single bee has
died in the past 2 months (unless they remove their dead at night).
 
Good luck with your observation hive - they're extremely interesting.
If I'm working next to the hive, I'll notice noises I would have never
heard from any of my outside hives - buzzing noises which I'm sure are
used to communicate in some way.
 
Matthew in Castle Rock, CO