What to use observation hive

[Murphy]

I was wondering whether to use glass or something like Lexan for the windows of the observation hive I have built. I was thinking the glass would stand up to wear and tear better.

Thanks,

Kieran

[Todd Zeiner]

I just finished my OB. Built it out of walnut. I used glass at first because of the reasons you stated, then after careful considerations I changed my mind. I ended up with plexiglass. I am planning on taking it to the kids school and maybe the county fair. I did not want to worry about the glass breaking. I guess you could use tempered glass or saftey glass. That gets kind of expensive though.

[Michael Bush]

I have three that are plexiglass and one that is tempered glass. I like the tempered glass, but I'd stay away from ordinary glass unless you're very sure young children won't be colliding with it.

The glass is easilly cleaned with a razor scraper. The plexi scractes easier but is easy to cut, and won't break. I clean the plexi with FGMO followed by windex.

[Ross]

I have regular 1/8" glass in mine. I figured I haven't broken a window in 25 years, and this is pretty much the same thing. Mine is mounted to the wall, so it can't fall over. I thought about safety glass, but it has a feature I don't like for this application. When it breaks, it completely disintegrates, leaving the whole hive open. With regular glass, it usually stays in place with large pieces in the frame. A good compromise might be regular glass with the plastic film applied to the outside. That would contain breakage while having the advantage of the hard glass surface inside for cleaning. These are sometimes called hurricane film.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

The last time I took mine apart I was real glad it was plex. I'm positive that I would have broken it if it was glass. And no, it was a dead out at the time. :(

[power napper]

I can not get mine apart--propolized double strength glass in a quarter inch slot--dumb thing to do for sure. Eventually something will cause a dead out then I can clean it! Really it is not too bad, bees keep the glass fairly clean!

[Murphy]

I have decided to go with clear acrylic. I built one the same as Brushy Mountains Ulster Ob hive.

I grew up in Ulster and we called them thorne obs.
My dad would put a queen into the observation hive on top of a NUC and let her lay for 24hrs and then use the eggs for new queens.

I do not know how Brushy Mountains Observation hive is but I really like this style as I allways have some NUCs kicking around.

[drobbins]

Murphy,

If you have a digital camera we'd all love to see pictures
I can put them up for you if you don't have a place to do it

Dave

[BULLSEYE BILL]

>I can not get mine apart--propolized double strength glass in a quarter inch slot--dumb thing to do for sure.

Use a hair dryer or heat gun to heat up the glass. It makes it much easier to remove.

[Ross]

You can always remove the wood from the outside to relese the groove. When you put the glass back in, just tack in a strip of quarter round or any wooden strip. You can do it with a router or do it the slow way with hand tools.