After having all Langstroths, we installed a package into a TBH on Sunday (this hive will be my son's). I also watched a friend install a package into her new TBH. There were a couple of things that were different (I know, duh, right?).
One, the "march" into the hive took a lot longer to happen with the TBH than I'm used to in a Langstroth. The installation was the same in that we dumped most of the bees into the box (after hanging the queen cage, so yes, she was in there). But the bees that were left got dumped onto the landing board. In both cases, very few bees came out of the TBH to fan, and it took longer for the bees on the landing board to "march" into the hive. Is this normal for a TBH installation?
Two, it seemed to take a lot longer for the bees to settle into the TBH. As the evening came on and the temps dropped a bit, there were still a lot of bees flying in a cloud around the hive entrance, rather than just settling in. Is this, in part, due to the lack of comb? I guess I had assumed they would just cluster inside the way they did in the package.
Our weather for the installations was awesome! Being the PNW, it is raining today. Don't know why I threw that in, it just seemed to want to come out...