Hi; my name is Tom Jackson and my wife Barb and I have decided to become beekeepers... We purchased a beginner's kit and a second hive from a distributor in NC and two 3# pkgs of bees from GA with Cal queens... Hives were assembled and painted a couple of weeks ago and set up on posts to await the arrival the southern belles... Last weekend the gals arrived and after a couple of days in the garage, awaiting a warmup, were installed into their hives... They have been consuming a quart of 1/1 per hive daily and have been packing in pollen for the last three days... Today is the day to inspect the hives to see if the queen has been freed, remove the feeder cans that I placed inside when we installed the bees,and remove the medium supers that were installed to make room for the shipping boxes and feeder cans... We plan to install a medium super and frames to each hive in about a week, as soon as I get them assembled, painted and dried... Today will be the first day to use the smoker, so wish me luck... Thanks for the forum, all input and assistance will be greatly appreciated... Tom