This one kind of veered away from the original question of hiving a couple (I assume packages) in Febuary in Alabama on foundationless. Also when to add the second deep and supers, which will be plastic foundation. I sahll attempt to muddle through with my limited understanding.
Febuary could be a tough time as your main flow at that time (depending on early or late weather) will be maple or possibly dandelion in your area (mainly pollen). If you hive them at that time put them in one deep only and you are going to have to feed the heck out of them as they will have zero honey stores and they burn through the syrup building wax. Depending on pollen availability you may have to feed that or a supplement as well to get the brood fed as well. Now once installed the ladies should get right down to building wax, though if you experience a cold snap that may slow and they may cluster but generally in Bama at that time of year they are flying at least during the warm part of the day so they should be building comb for you. On foundationless you will need to monitor it regularly to make sure they get pointed in the right direction, catching cross comb early is easier to fix early than late. Make sure the boxes are level, especially side to side. Make your inspections quick and during the warmest part of the day at that time as well to prevent chilled brood. When they get the first two nice straight frames drawn you can insert an empty between the two drawn combs for a guide, repeat as needed, but do not move drawn frames with eggs/brood away from the center of the brood chamber or they will get chilled. By the time of fruit tree bloom you should have a full box of drawn comb and brood and depending on the strength of the bees you may add the second deep at this time or go straight to supers. Beware though the second deep may get some drone/honey stores cells at this time as they may be thinking swarm or honey or both. You'll have to make the call on that. Another possibility is to hold off putting the second deep on but pulling cull comb, if they have messed one up, or empty comb (if available) from the outside of the box and continue to insert empty frames into the center of the brood nest. You can save the comb you pulled out to add back with the second deep when you have enough to give them the new deep with some drawn comb to repeat the center of nest trick.
On the excluder, I would hold off putting it on (actually I wouldn't use it at all) until you have a good flow on to put the supers on. Let them draw out the supers before you insert the excluders. They tend to resist going through the wire so get them up and on drawn comb and working it before forcing them through the wire. Good luck!
Topic: newbee needing advice (Read 3185 times)