The two hives seem to be doing well.  I left the hives alone for 6 days
and decided that today, being 65F, would be a good time to remove the
queen cage and add the BeePro ready-made Patties to each hive.


The first hive which has been sort of weak from the beginning had no was
foundation buildup, but lots of yellow travel marks across the wood.
They have set up shop in the front right corner of the hive; i'm
guessing because of the slight gaps between the supers.  I put a piece
of masking tape around the edges  between the supers to cut down on the
drafts.  It's been real windy up here in Boston so I suspect that's one
reason why.  I also added the 10th frame.  Hopefully, between the
BeePro, the sugar syrup and some warm days coming up they will have a
chance to get better established.


The second hive (this is a real barn burner, an "All American" package
from Weaver) has formed a small piece of comb about 3 inches in diameter
in the same vicinity as the other hive, in the right front of the body.
I noticed that it moved a bit when I put the frame back into the body so
I don't think it's firmly planted against the plasticell foundation
yet.  This colony is very active, but then again the entire package was
alive with only about 50 dead bees in the bottom of the package.  I
added the 9th and 10th frame to this package today, plus a BeePro
patty.  They've also taken about an inch more syrup than the other
colony.  I hope they mind their own business and don't decide to raid
the other colony.


Anyway, that's the short and long of it.  I apologize for sending a
"diary" of my activities but am tossing my "Bee work habits" out there
to those of you with experience to tell me if this is the wrong way or
right way to go about things.  I am planning on taking a very brief look
at each hive a week from this saturday to see how they've taken the
beepro and to replace them if needed.  I also plan to check the syrup in
a few days to see if it needs to be refilled.


I was laughing to myself as I tried to put a little smoke to the hives
because the amount of smoke I was getting was pretty darned weak - all
this talk about keeping it lit - I had less smoke than an idle cigarette
burning, but this was probably for the best i'm guessing since it did
keep them content and inside without swarming around.


Thanks to everyone on the list!

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