Looks nice John. How do you keep the temperature stable in a permanent type obs hive?
Yes they are inside, the window to the left is east facing so it should not get too warm with afternoon west sun.
Bit of an update. May not be working out so far.
The first 24 hours looked good, lots of activity and bees helping themselves to the syrup. I opened the pipe late at night. It wasn't until about 4pm the next day that we noticed bees moving up and down the pipe. Does it take them a little while to figure out the entrance? Anyway, not long after the bees were flying and the pipe was crowed with them coming and going. The bees were not taking syrup anymore. Perhaps all the flying was due to robber bees? I only noticed three dead bees at the bottom of the hive, and none outside. Still plenty of honey in the frames. So I'm not sure what is going on.
After sunset I noticed the hive was missing about 1/2 of the bees. About 1/3 of the larvae now not covered in nurse bees. No bees in the pipe, no bees at the syrup.
Could bees have drifted back to the parent hive? Have not seen any queen cells being made yet.
This morning, about 8 o'clock, some bees venturing out, none interested in the syrup.
I am thinking I should put the brood frame back in the parent hive and replace it with another one covered in nurse bees. What do you think?
I would love to hear any ideas.
cheers
john