OBSERVATORY HIVES 
633 
able-eomb hives changed the methods of 
stocking them. 
The usual type of observatory hive con¬ 
sists of a single-comb hive with glass pan¬ 
els. Sometimes there is a row of sections 
on top to show the relative position of the 
sections to the brood-nest while they are 
being filled by bees in the regular way. Of 
course it would not be possible to produce 
section honey in a single-frame nucleus; 
but when an observatory hive with sections 
is displayed in a window where honey is on 
sale, it not only attracts prospective buyers 
but it educates them, in that it shows a part 
of the brood-nest with the bees and the 
brood, and the sections of honey just as 
they are on the hive. It advertises honey 
as nothing else does. Great crowds congre¬ 
gate on the street watching the bees on the 
comb “making honey.” 
The bees are usually left in the window 
for two or three days. By that time they 
will need to be renewed or they will soon 
die; and by that time, also, the most of the 
people in the vicinity will have seen them. 
Experience shows that this display hive 
of bees will immediately increase the sales 
of honey, both comb and extracted, and 
grocers who have had it are loud in their 
requests to have bees put in their windows 
—especially if their neighbor across the 
street has them in his window. 
The single-comb hives can be studied to 
good advantage in the home or in the 
school. In either case they are placed on a 
shelf on a level with the window sill so that 
the entrance will pass under the window 
sash. The space on each side is closed with 
a stick. The bees will set up housekeeping, 
go to the fields, and enter upon their ordi¬ 
nary work as tho there were no one on 
hand to see why and how they do it. 
Sometimes an observatory hive can be 
placed some ten or twelve feet from the 
window or side of the building. In that 
case, a tube connects the hive to a hole thru 
the side of the building. Strange as it may 
seem, the bees will learn to go thru this 
long tube to the outside. At the San Fran¬ 
cisco Exposition in 1915, an observatory 
hive was arranged in this way, and the bees 
used this long tube entrance the entire 
season. This, of course, made it unneces¬ 
sary to replace the bees every so often. 
When nature study is being taught in 
schools these observatory hives are used to 
a considerable extent; and very often bee¬ 
keepers themselves who desire to become 
more intimately acquainted with the habits 
of the bee find pleasure and profit in keep¬ 
ing one of these hives up next to the win¬ 
dow of the living-room. 
When the bees come in with fresh loads 
of pollen or new honey, they show the 
usual signs of rejoicing by shaking their 
bodies, apparently to attract attention, and 
thus induce other bees to find the treasures 
that they have brought home. A great 
many other interesting things can be dis¬ 
covered with one of these hives where the 
comb is parallel with the glass panel. But 
what transpires in the cells and behind the 
cappings cannot be determined with this 
kind of glass hive. 
Arthur C. Miller of Providence, R. I., an 
ardent student of bee culture, and one who 
has watched the bees for many hours at a 
time, discovered a plan by which he can see 
the bees at work and the larvae spinning 
their cocoons as well as if he had X-ray 
eyes. 
It was his desire to see what the bees 
were doing in the cells; and one day when 
a small burr of comb was found built 
against the glass, and a bee seen at work in 
it the idea was conceived of fixing in an 
observatory hive a small comb or several of 
them, so that a whole row of cells was par¬ 
allel to the glass. It is not necessary to de¬ 
scribe the many and crude attempts before 
success was achieved, but at last a stage 
was reached where a row of combs was 
fixed between two panes of glass about 
four inches apart, and a small colony es¬ 
tablished therein. 
The hive was placed indoors before a 
window, the bees passing in and out be¬ 
neath the partly raised sash. The little 
colony started at work nicely, and soon 
honey and pollen were being stored in the 
cell against the glass. By accident the 
wooden shutters were left off the hive for 
two or three days, and when it was ob¬ 
served at the end of that time the bees were 
found at work in a perfectly normal man¬ 
ner and no running over the glass was 
noticeable. Obviously, the shutters were 
not necessary, and their abandonment 
seemed to mark a distinct advance. A cold 
storm which occurred shortly after nearly 
