After work today I put the suit on and took some video in the hive.
I noticed some comb on the syrup can.
The feeder is about half empty.
There’s a nice cluster in a wedge shape. I can make out comb in it.
Bees are coming and going nicely.
Video to come when I have a moment.
We drove out to get our packages last Thursday. After a few sessions in the garage with some wood, a table saw, nails, glue, paint and pot of hot beeswax, we put together three top bar hives.
Thursday night when I got home with my package, I took off the wooden door, took out the syrup can and queen cage and put them in the hive. I nailed the strapping on the queen cage to a bar and let it hang. There was a feeder in the back end of the hive, the queen in the middle, then the syrup can and finally the package box in the front. I pulled the front bar back just enough to let bees get in and out.
Friday morning I drove to Connecticut for a First Holy Communion.
Sunday night when I got back, there was enough light to check the hive.
The queen cage was perpendicular to the bars and the bees built a nice piece of comb, maybe 5 inches in diameter, with nectar (syrup?) and pollen cells, off the bottom of the queen cage. I took the queen cage out and as I hadn’t pulled the cork, I popped out the cork and then stapled the cage back on the top bar, but aligned along the bar so that the resulting comb will be along a bar.
There were two or three other combs already taking shape on the waxed bars.
No bees were left in the package cage, so I removed it.
Here are the bees flying in and out on Monday: