Jeff, welcome to our forum. You have done yourself a favour by finding this place to spend time. We want to hear about your beekeeping experiences, sounds like you live in a place where the bees must love to be. Very nice.
Spend lots of time here, ask your questions, they will all get great answers, your game plan sounds good and hope that things go well, which I know they will, you are taking your time with the bees and that is good too. Enjoy your time spent here, it is healthy time spent and we all need to learn as much as we can to be the best beekeeper. Have a wonderful and awesome day, love our life. Cindi