I moved the bees/frames from the cardboard NUC back on April 14th. It has been a couple of weeks since then and it is time to do my first hive inspection.
The new hive is the “Bees Rules” boxes. The original five frames were moved to an eight frame deep with 3 frames of foundation. Another 8 frame deep was sat on top with 5 frames of built out comb and three frames of foundation. Feeding with a 1 quart entrance feeder with 1:1 syrup and honey-b-healthy additive. Boxes insulated with 1” Styrofoam insulation.
lots of bees in the center frames of both boxes. Bees are not doing a lot of wax building. They do have a lot of built out comb, so there isn’t much reason for them to make wax.
Some of the new foundation frames have the ‘front’ 20% of the foundation removed. The thought process is that the bees seem to want to produce 20% drones and 80% workers in the spring. This will allow them to build drone comb without having to mess up the worker comb to make room for drones. The thought is that the bees will use this drone comb area for honey storage over the winter.
Split Foundation Frame