Building or buying an observation hive is easy.  Keeping one, is not.  I
have had one at the Virginia Discovery Museum, a children's museum in
Charlottesville, for just over four years.  In fact, I have redesigned, and
rebuilt it a number of times in those four years, and am now fairly
comfortable with the design.  The problem is, in my view, that if you have
few enough frames (I have a shallow over a deep over a deep) to be able to
see what's going on in the hive, you don't have enough for a viable
community.  I have kept the hive going over the winters, but usually by
springtime I'm so embarrassed with the rag-tag look of the thing, that I
have to take it home to restock it.  Then, later in the spring, when "momma"
begins to produce a lot of workers, it gets so crowded that you can't tell
who's who, and I have to take it home again to thin it out.  The children
and the adults all love it, and so do I, in spite of my grousing, but it is
a whale of a lot of work to keep it looking right.  When it's gone the
children miss it, the adults miss it, and so do the museum staff.  And you
feel guilty for every day your are struggling with it at home.  My point in
all this, is that it's a lot like parenthood.  The first part is easy and
quite exciting.  Later on it gets difficult, and you really shouldn't get
involved unless you're in it for the long pull, and you're prepared for a
lot of hard work.
 
 
Guy F. Miller           "Start every day with a smile, and get it over with."
Charlottesville. VA                                     W.C. Fields