Finally added the second brood box

[ZuniBee]

I hived my 2 pound packages on April 9th. They started very quick and there were a lot of eggs. However, after two weeks they slowed down quite a bit. The queens are keeping each cell full of eggs but they just are not making any more comb....or they are doing it very slow. I thought they would be ready last week but the first two I checked were not progressing. I chalked it up to not enough bees to keep progressing.

Well today I opened the other two that have not been open for a couple of weeks. They are full of bees and one has 8 full combs drawn and two with nothing. So, I added another brood box. Hope the timing was right. The other had 6 full frames of comb and two quarter frames comb with the rest empty. So, I didn't add the second box.

The two that I had opened last week had 6 full frames of brood and 4 empty. They were starting on the 7th frame but not much. Every box had twice as many bees as before and they all had eggs so the queens are doing good. Maybe the hives will grow faster now that there are new bees.

Now for the great news: I had left the hive top feeder with no feed and they had built some comb with honey. So, I harvested that honey for me when I removed the feeder. I got 3/4 of a jar! Boy is it good.

[Mklangelo]

I hived my packages on April 23rd.  It seems that they won't draw comb over what their still diminishing population can attend to.  They have about 5 or 6 frames drawn.  I'm thinking they will start drawing the rest when the new bees emerge, which is what yours probably did.

[Michael Bush]

I just checked on packages I installed on the 20th of April.  Most I added a third box to (eight frame medium boxes) and two are still in one box and haven't filled it.  I checked those two thoroughly and they each have about two frames of very nicely laid solid brood, but just not enough bees to raise more.  They all must have drifted next door.

Funny how differently two hives will build up.

[Brian D. Bray]

With swarms and packages it is natural for the bees to have a slow down period.  The bees have to keep the brood area covered and when the population of the hive dwindles to the point that it takes most of the bees to cover the brood then the foraging almost comes to a standstill.  Once the brood hatches and replaces the existing nurse bees the older bees will begin foraging and you'll see them booming once again.  My bees just hit that stage, having been hived on April 28th.

[thomashton]

Hived a package on April 16th in 10 frame medium. Gave it 4 frames of brood from my other hives. Just put on another medium last night. Suprised it hasn't already swarmed. The place was packed with bees.