~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
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What is an observation hive, you ask?
Or, O-Hive, as the Chief calls it?
Well.
It's what he asked for for Christmas. Not the thing itself, mind. No. He asked for the green light to build one for himself! Because you see, an observation hive is an indoor bee hive!
Yes! Crazy! I know!
But he really REEEALLY wanted one. So of course Santa said yes. So he has spent most of the year so far figuring out a plan and working out all the problems. It has lots of little features which I'll have to get him to describe. But he's excited to share this crazy thing with you, and now all he needs is a swarm to put in there.
{pretty}
It's pretty, isn't it? I didn't expect it to look this nice. I mean, there's the blue hose and all -- for the bees to fly in and out.
Of the house.
The indoors.
Inside.
Where I am.
Of the house.
The indoors.
Inside.
Where I am.
But it's quite handsome, actually. It's in his office. There is a small board under the window through which the hose is placed, allowing the window to open up from the top. And there are four windows in that room! I admit I thought that the O-hive would cover things up and mess up the window, but it doesn't.
{happy}
Oh, he's happy! He has spent the past year talking about this thing!
That man really loves bees!
The idea here is like an ant farm. You see them do all their work and living! And you can detach the whole thing and take it to show people, such as crazy school children or crazy nursing home residents. Who actually would like it, I think, judging by the way the people at Grandma's assisted living reacted.
She would introduce him as "my son the beekeeper" and that's all they wanted to talk about!
 |
| Hockey fans, do you know what that is a photo of? And who it is signed by? And why it's Phil's favorite thing, pretty much?* |
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| You can swing it around, although the hose makes it sort of stay swung out. You can unlatch that latch and harvest the honey or do whatever maintenance you need to do. |
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| You can close the hose and open up the bottom to clean things out. |
He's made other things, like this stand-up desk below, which is also his own design.
He likes the idea of getting out of that chair and writing on his laptop, standing up. Of course, certain people like Bridget and I are always stealing the computer away from him. Oops, sorry, hon.
{funny}
Note the air rifle in the background. That man really hates squirrels, and a gun must be at the ready. The screen is always up on that window, the better to make the shot.
{real}
Of course, it took many months for him to work out all the details. We nearly always walk in the house through the garage, past his workbench. I had to exclaim many, many times over the progress of this thing.
And this little hatch affair (it goes at the bottom of the hive to close off where the hose attaches, sort of like an airlock so that when you remove the hive you don't have bees still flying in! -- and you can see the little slide-out door in the other pictures) took a lot of brainpower to figure out. But it's ingenious. Maybe he can answer any questions you might have, if you happen also to be crazy.
All we need now are two things:
1) a covering for the glass, such as some industrial wool felt, I'm thinking, so the bees can go nighty-night. Anyone have a good source for that?
2) bees.
So if you see some swarming bees, call us. Please. It'll be awesome.**
*It's a picture of Bobby Orr, making his famous Stanley Cup goal. Signed by him to Phil. Wow, huh?
**He'll probably end up splitting one of his (outside) colonies, but he really REEEALLLY wants to capture a swarm. So call.
