Inspected Today, Questions ( Always )

[DayValleyDahlias]

SOOOOOOO friends,

I checked the hives today...( all 8 frame )

The 2 packages that I installed on April 12 are going like gangbusters ( I think anyway ).  This is what I saw:

Bottom Brood (medium )...full of brood and honey
2nd Brood ( medium ) lots of brood and honey
3rd Brood (medium )  still has a way to go...looks like a few capped drones up there...some drawing out

BTW, small cell foundation and starter strip was used on these...

This are Russian/Yugo.  These bees are not as dark as I though they would be...there is golden in that woodshed...

The original hive that started me off on my beek adventure, has been through some transition.  I do think it did swarm on me ( lessoned learned ).  After time it was doing poorly and I noticed no queen...the swarm colony that started to tank looked iffy too, so I did a combine and kept my fingers crossed.

With the addition of the swarm colony, I ended up with 3 deeps, which I took down to 2 deeps around 2 weeks ago...I noticed capped brood in the swarm colony deep, which I placed on the bottom, I then placed the remainder of the bees atop the brood box...I had some mega bee so I gave them some...

They have eaten the mega bee ALL up...their numbers have increased and the drone population is way down...they have a lot of honey and are building up nicely.

Question 1:
The package bees keep all their honey this year, is that correct?  So as they fill each super, I should just keep adding HS for them to use for Winter?

Question 2:

Should I treat the original hive as a package, since they had the afore mentioned transitions?

Question 3:

Does the color of the bees always indicate it's ancestry?

Many Thanks

Sharon

[doak]

You need to see if you can consult some beekeepers in your area and find out how much honey you need to leave on. Them being package has more to do with how much they store than how much they need to winter. It is assumed a package cannot store enough after having to build up and build most all their comb, as well as an over wintered colony.
hope this helps.
For adding supers just use the 7/10 method.
doak

[doak]

Oh! you said 8 frames.
Use the 5/8 method.
doak

[DayValleyDahlias]

Thanks there Mr Doak...5/8

They have a lot of honey already! Wow..amazing

[indypartridge]

You need to see if you can consult some beekeepers in your area and find out how much honey you need to leave on.

Ditto.  In my climate - central Indiana - it's unusual for a package to produce any surplus the first year, but it does occasionally happen. In warmer climates with a longer season and favorable conditions, your chances of harvesting a crop are significantly better.

[DayValleyDahlias]

Last year the nuc I had started with produced 60 pounds...