Observation hive - post show treatment ?

[Silverbee]

Any tips for ensuring bees survive a day in an observation hive ? Using a 3 frame hive with lots of food ... returned the frames to the poly neuc and have fed. But anything else to consider ? They are a back up colony but want to do right by them, should I check for queen cells in the frames that were queenless for the day or will they sort themselves out once she is returned ?? Also when she was on display the queen laid eggs on the glass? Any explanation apart from the fact she was having an upsetting day ?
Thanks for any advice.

[Mellifera Crofter]

I'm sure your bees will be fine. Check for queen cells - why not?

As for the eggs on the glass - maybe she ran out of space or got a bit frustrated. Who knows ...

Kitta

[Silverbee]

Thanks. I just wondered if there was a certain period of time after which no queen presence triggered queen cells ?

[Poly Hive]

Used to take Obs to shows and schools pretty often and never had an issue with problems post show. I would make up the Ob the night before so they were roughly 24 hours Q-. As Kitts says no harm in checking.

Recently seen an Ob with a large lower chamber and on show was actually very little as the queen was hiding in the dark (as one would expect) not too sure what the point of the design was as it really didn't achieve much. Anyone got some knowledge of this design and its intentions?

PH

[busybeephilip]

Thanks. I just wondered if there was a certain period of time after which no queen presence triggered queen cells ?

I used to bring an Ob hive to the Belfast and District Honey and flowershow for some 20+ years without fail but always made sure there would be a queen present and marked bright yellow (the crown!). People want to see the queen or else they are very disappointed. The new show Belfast beekeeper organizers now recently use a thornes paper demo dummy teaching hive - just not the same but I suppose you dont have to have a volunteer to constantly gaurd it against some uncontrolled kid insisting on hitting the glass with somit heavy while the parent stands by smiling waiting for the glass to break and admire their childs freedom to express and tone their vandalizm skills. I would imagine that after the bees realize they are queenless (30 mins? ) then preparations, which might not be that obvious to the beekeeper, such as selecting an egg or suitable larvae will have begun to produce that emergency queen cell. The first noticeable sign is a slight widening and extension of the wax cell selected which will be after some 24hours? perhaps

[Poly Hive]

I have a test frame in a nuc which I am 99.9% sure is Q-. I have a queen in hand so am leaving the test frame in for 36 hours hoping to take a pic tomorrow of that widening and flooding with RJ.

PH

[Silverbee]

Thanks all ... hive was queenless for approx 12 hours and no sign of queen cells ... so seems they sorted them selves out or that was an acceptable period .... all is well.