Once I had an observation hive set up at school in my biology lab-----when it looked like it was going to demonstrate a swarmig it turned into a display of absconding. :'(
Yep, they require regular maintenance! As nice a tool for learning about bee behavior as it may be, an observation hive is far from providing the bees with the kind of a home they can really enjoy living in. There are a lot of stresses the observation hive places on the family, among them: restricted space for expanding, difficulty in regulating temperatures (heats up too fast in hot weather and cools down too fast when it's cold), over-exposure to light, unnatural organization of combs (brood isn't flanked with side frames of pollen and honey stores), doesn't allow for optimum sized populations etc., etc.
But they are great learning tools. In my early days with bees I used to spend hours watching the ongoings inside my observation hive at home. Much better than watching fish in an aquarium.
