Beehive with glass walls
To observe the life of a bee family it is good to have a small (just one frame) hive with transparent glass side walls. Through them you can see everything that is done in the nest. Bees as in a display case. They do not even suspect that they are being watched. They calmly do their job. They are not annoyed by light.
Here the uterus lays eggs. She carefully drops the long full abdomen into the glossy cell, after having examined it. And so fills the cells one after another. And in the day he puts eggs, and at night. And where the brood, nurse-bees feed the larvae, ducking their heads in the cells-cradles. Lazy drones stretch their proboscis, begging for food from good and caring bees. Suddenly a dancer appeared from somewhere, agile, spinning on a sheer honeycomb… The life of the family is diverse and non-stop.
Observation of everything that is usually done in a hollow or a hive, so to speak, in private, secretly from others, according to the famous Russian beekeeper NM Vitvitsky, is pleasant to the heart, useful to the mind and at the same time not at all tedious. He was the first in Russia to make a glass beehive. Especially he advised to do to his children: “I assure you that you will see such delightful scenes that will fill your heart and mind with inexplicable pleasantness.”
In just one frame, the observation beehive helped many scientists make important discoveries, explain the patterns of social life of honey bees.
Observation hive looks somewhat unusual. This is a small locker on any nesting frame. At the bottom of the front wall there is a small hole through which the bees fly out and return home. The side glass walls, when not being monitored, are covered with wooden doors. They cover the honeycomb from the light.
The honeycomb should not be old. In dark cells, it is worse to see how larvae develop and how their bees feed, other details
Between the panes and the honeycomb should be strictly observed the distance of 6 mm, which is necessary for the passage of bees. If it is more or less, the bees will be stuck with wax and propolis and then it is already impossible to observe the bees.
A small observational beehive can easily be carried. Academician A. M. Butlerov almost never parted with his ulcer. He was standing at his office window. The bees flew through the cleft in the window frame, which was connected to the tap. When the scientist went on a business trip or on a summer vacation home to the Kazan province, he took it with him. Even on a trip, he watched how these unusual passengers behaved.
It is better, of course, to place the observation beehive in the school biological study (on the window) or where there is an area of wildlife. And make a flight to the street.
The family lives in such a hitching small, weak. She finds it difficult to be free, especially in bad weather in the spring and autumn, and the room is nice, warm even in cold weather. And in the winter you can watch the bees. They do not sleep like other insects, but they are awake, moreover they live a very interesting life, quite unlike the one they lived in the summer.
Observational or, as it is sometimes called, an educational beehive is an apiary in miniature. A young beekeeper who knows how to make notes, making friends with a glass hive, can learn a lot, learn and understand the most complicated phenomena in the life of honey bees. The father of American beekeeping L. Langstroth said that thanks to the observational beehive it is possible “in one summer to check the discoveries made by the combined efforts of numerous observers for more than two thousand years.”
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)Beehive with glass walls