Observation hive at Lake Merritt - team assemble!

[Cortney]

Hello fellow beeks!

I hope this email finds you well. I am establishing a team of beekeepers whom is interested in setting up an observation hive at Lake Merritt. I have spoken to the Junior Center of Art and Sciences director and they are very interested in getting a hive set up there. However, there was a previous observation hive set up at the rotary club across the way that isn’t in use right now. There’s lots of potential here!
A little about myself; I’m a mom, artist and educator. I’ve been beekeeping since 2018 and my favorite thing to manage as a beekeeper is to reconfigure the hive so the colony doesn’t swarm.
If you are interested in getting these beginning bits started or would be interested in managing the hive once gets going, let’s talk! Reply to this email by the end of the week. Include a little bit about yourself, times and days that would be best for you to meet up, wether you prefer communication and organizing by email/zoom or in person, and what you are most interested in doing with this project.

I’m looking forward to hearing back from fellow beekeepers whom are excited about community work!

Buzz buzz,
Cortney Daniel
email: mscor...@gmail.com

[Robin Chatham]

Hi, what an exciting project!

You may want to check in with the folks at Mount Diablo Beekeepers Association, who have had an observation hive at the Lindsay Wildlife Experience for many years.

A healthy bee colony needs to swarm to reproduce, it's their nature to survive as a species and spread around to increase nests. To stifle that urge is nearly impossible. It's definitely unnatural. The colony in the observation hive at the Lindsay Museum swarms regularly.  

Im handy with wood n tools and making repairs.  I've built several observation hives. Call me if you'd like my help. 

If you'd like a contact number for Peter or Larry at MDBA, let me know.

Robin Chatham

925-858-9760 

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[Jim Veitch]

Great stuff on the observation hive!

Just a contrary view on swarming: I think managing bees to deter swarming is an excellent skill to practice. I manage swarming by doing regular inspections in swarm season and not only using in-hive management such as providing appropriate empty comb but also using splits when I see signs of swarming. While not 100% successful, I end up with plenty of bees and only rarely do hives actually swarm..  As a bonus you can end up with a lot more honey per hive as well, though that does not apply to an observation hive. I encourage us urban beekeepers to think about the trouble for someone else should one of our swarms set up home inside the walls of a house --Jim

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[Mimi Edwards]

Cortney - I have 6 frame deep observation hive that I can donate. (It's like the hive we use at County Fair without the rolling lifted table.)  Let me know if you are interested in picking it up.    Mimi

[Robin Chatham]

Im intrigued by how people have different reasons for keeping bees and therefore different methods of "keeping" them.

Thanks Jim for your input on swarm suppressing and why you practice it. 

Your consideration for those who may be inconvenienced by a swarm moving into their dwelling is the same reason I 1. Collect swarms . 2. Educate those who don't yet know why bees swarm and are afraid of it. 3. Teach people about bees and swarms so they can take measures to bee proof their homes, feel comfortable and even fascinated by bees and their behaviors, to mention a few. 

If you'd like to see a couple videos of different swarm collections see me on YouTube @KeeperOfTheWildBees

Robin Chatham

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[Gerald Przybylski]

I think Phil built a fancy one-frame deep observation hive for the Rotary Nature Center. Maybe he can share his design. 
Here are some thoughts on the topic 
https://www.bushfarms.com/beesobservationhives.htm

I don't think the kind of observation hive used at the county fair works for an unattended 
installation like the one at the RNC. 
The queen  on the top frame is separated from the 5 frames under the Nuc cover; she needs access to all the frames, 
and visitors need to be able to find her. 

that's my 2¢

[Cortney Daniel]

Hi all,  

 I hope you this email finds you well. Thank you so much for all the wonderful replies. I would love to have a separate conversation on swarming and 'letting' your hive swarm and the necessity of it!

 

 Mimi, I talked to the Junior Center staff and they are interested in the observation hive. I am unfamilar about what the one used at the county fair looks like, can you send a picture or link so I can have a better idea? If it's what we are looking for we can make arrangements to come pick it up. 

 Robin, what does your availability for hive crafting look like? 

I'm thinking of a quick meet up to introduce ourselves with those interested in a few weeks (perhaps Feb.18th or 25th) at Lake Merritt Wed 4-5? Would like that work for peoples schedules?

Buzz buzz, 

Cortney Daniel

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[Gerald Przybylski]

I manage the swarm hotline for the acba.
Last year the volunteers handled (were swamped by) over 500 swarm calls out of 1500 calls handled.
That's more swarms than our neighboring clubs traffic in packages. 

The FEWER swarm calls we have to handle the better! 
- We have to carve out about 20 minutes on average PER Swarm call to Take the information, post it, wait for a claim, and pass the info.
The fewer calls we have the more free time. 
The time-per-call stretches at the end of the season when everyone's yard is full-up and we have to resort to phoning friends to take the swarms, and occasionally collect them ourselves just to make sure they have a home. Help us out by minimizing the load on the front end.
- Swarms in the environment stress our neighbors and neighborhoods.  
Uninformed, ill-informed, and panicked people sometimes spray them with a hose, or worse yet, an insecticide!  
Swarms move into peoples structures, resulting in an expensive extraction that the bee-haver is the cause of. 
- If we look for it, and we must, there's information around about how to keep a reign on the swarming urge, and what to do when finding Swarm-Cells in the hive. e.g. the booklets by Wally Shaw at the publications page of the Welsh Beekeeper Association,
or his Book - Swarming Biology and Control - available through the Bee-Craft magazine website (publisher) in the UK. 
((( if there are 30 or so people are interested in getting a copy perhaps a carton could be ordered at a bulk price))) 

On the plus side, whenever a colony swarms you get a new queen and another roll of the dice.  The new queen mates 
with the local drone population, so the colony picks up on traits selected for naturally in our climate and microclimates. 
That should make for more robust, healthier colonies that can cope with the local set of pathogens.
A new queen this year will have a higher probability of making it through next winter. The advice to requeen every year is over100 years old. 
If we successfully prevent swarming, or if we split to prevent swarming, and replace the old queen by some easy manipulations to produce an emergency queen, then WE do our job of animal-husbendry and do the right thing for our community, and our neighbors. 
Seeley said 80% of natural swarms fail to make it through the following winter.  We can make a difference by heading off unnecessary swarming.
There are enough wild/feral colonies swarming already.  That population doesn't need a contribution from us beekeepers. 

So please don't let your colony swarm willy-nilly -- because it's the natural thing to do. 
Set up a bait hive or two to attract wild/feral/your-own swarms to it.  Give away the ones you don't have room for. 
Help out by collecting swarms rather than generating them. 

That's my 2¢

On 1/20/26 3:05 PM, Cortney Daniel wrote:

Hi all,  

 I hope you this email finds you well. Thank you so much for all the wonderful replies. I would love to have a separate conversation on swarming and 'letting' your hive swarm and the necessity of it!

 ...

[Joan Houston]

Beekeepers need to maintain accountability for their colonies by practicing preemptive swarm control and hive management. These are a beekeeper’s main responsibilities.

There’s lots of literature and videos out there to advise how best to maintain colony size and health. Wally’s book is definitely recommended reading.

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[Mimi]

In urban areas, a swarm that takes hold in someone’s attic or wall will cost homeowner thousands to extract.  Please be a good neighbor and prevent your bees from swarming. Artificial swarm splits are great way to “let” your bees reproduce while still maintaining control of how/where your bees end up.   Mimi 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 21, 2026, at 12:34 PM, Joan Houston <bee...@dripzhoney.com> wrote:



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