Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Rusty Strings]

Has anybody ever tried a transparent follower to enable observing either end of the colony without moving anything?
I'm thinking a frame with glass rather than plastic as it be more scratch resistant.

John

[Barbara]

Hi John

It is probably not worth the effort or expense of having the glass cut to size for that purpose. Moving the follower board back to have a look causes minimal disruption to a TBH. That is the beauty of them. The vast majority of bees will be totally unaware of you doing so, unlike vertical hives which results in loss of heat and nest scent when the crown board is removed as well as letting so much more light in between the combs.

Regards

Barbara

[DocBB]

do you mean like this one ?

[Rusty Strings]

That's the idea!
I made a pair of follower boards with a plexiglass panel for my bait hives, the idea being that if it was in place of the furthest top bar from the entrance and the rear of the hive was removable, then you could check the colony for comb attachments before trying to move them to a full size hive. Unfortunately the bees were so prolific in their comb building that they needed the last bar.