I want to thank all who responded to my plea for help.  This weekend
I visited the "local" bee supply store in Snohomish county quite a
distance away and spent an hour with the owner who was a former employee
of Silver Bow and now has his own store.  I purchased honey supers for the 2
new hive bodies with package bees, painted them with some leftover acrylic
latex exterior paint (greenish white) then commenced to "suit up" and opened
them for the first time to set the newly painted second story chambers.
They appeared to be full to the brim with bees.  There are two other hives
that are well established but one of these I'm a little concerned about.
At night, there seems to be 25-50 bees outside of the hive sitting on the
"doorstep" of the hive.  It was suggested that there may be too many bees
in this hive and a swarm is emminent.  So a local expert is going to
come and check it out.
 
Comments welcomed and I'm grateful this mailing list exists!
 
Thanks again
Teri
 
P.S. I've ordered First Lessons in Beekeeping, and Hive and the Honeybee
 
On Mon, 3 May 1993, Teri Rhan {FMO} wrote:
 
> My husband and I have split up, beekeeping was his hobby though I paid for
> all the equipment, they're here at my house, he's nowhere to be found.
> Could someone give me a real quick and dirty synopsis of what I need to do
> to care for these?  I have 4 hives and I have grown rather fond of their
> presence in the garden.  I noticed that the sugar water ran out yesterday,
> (first sunny day in a week) so I tried to refill the containers last night
> not knowing what proportion of sugar to water but faking it best I can.  I
> don't want to loose these hives and plan on hitting the bookstore in a day
> or 2 but in the meantime I would appreciate any beekeeping lessons.
>
> Thanks
> Teri