I'm new to beekeeping and need some advice. On 5/17/01 I installed a new 4lb package of bees in a new hive (single deep with 10 frames of CellRite foundation). These bees were purchased from a local bee keeping supply store. I was told when I ordered them that they were Italians shipped from California. The hive is setup with a one gallon internal feeder, which sits above the inner cover and is enclosed by a empty hive body with a telescoping lid. I checked the hive on Sunday night 5/20/01, the bees had started drawing the comb, but I did not see any eggs. I did see the queen walking in the middle of foundation, she is marked. This evening I check the hive again, I saw some comb fully drawn out near the corners of the foundation in the middle of the hive. I did not see any "capped" cells, but I saw 3 queen cells in the middle of a frame. The cells all appeared to be about the same age. Non were fully enclosed, they all had a hole at the end. I'm unsure how may eggs were present, I only looked at 3 frames. The two middle frames had eggs, more on the edges than in the middle. Pulled an outside frame and the two middle ones. Since this is my first (and only) hive I do not have a good benchmark on what things should look like. I am concerned about the queen cells. I don't want to loose my bees in a swarm, and I'm unsure how to tell if the hive is trying to replace a unproductive queen. Any advice on how I should proceed would be appreciated. Other information: - I have not used smoke on this hive - I live in the pacific Northwest, we have had good weather since the package was installed (daytime temp 60 - 72 over last 10 days) - Sugar water mix is 1 to 1, (5 pints water, five lbs sugar) 1 gallon - Bees are going through about 5 lbs sugar a week - Entrance reducer is installed - The hive is painted green, the local bee supply store recommended green because it would keep the hive warmer. - As far as I can tell there is plenty of room in the single deep hive body