I picked 2 hives up that were about 10 miles apart, they had not been bothered for a yr, they just had the brood chambers, top covers and bottom boards setting on 4 bricks. I straped the hives together and loaded them into my station wagon, side by side, they just fit in the focus. I got them home and put a new screened bottom board on some cement blocks and put the hives on them. I also put a can of sugar water on top of an inner cover as i really didn't know what was inside for food. the owner told me that there was no bees in one of them and a few were hanging out near the other.. He went thru a divorce last yr and got custody of the kids and bla-bla, not time left for bees. Well i got a bonus because there were bees in both, one full and the other like a new package and both had eggs.
the next day after they had settled down a little i took the hives apart and cleaned them up, some had black plastic along with white plastic and wood frames with starter strips, they were so full that the bees had tunnels made of comb to get around, like something you would find in a house., maybe this was wrong and i felt bad about robbing them, but i removed 9 frames of honey in all so i could get the frames lined up to put them back, and i scraped all the comb scraped off.. A mouse had a nest in the one hive and had chewed away half the wooden frame. It's been a few weeks now and I know that there is not going to be enough food for the winter, I'm thinking about taking the smaller hive and combining it with another small hive that i already had to see if the both can't get enough food for them this winter.
I know i should have not robbed their honey but they were such a mess that i had all i could do to get the frames out and i knew that i would never get 10 frames back in
they're nice bees, real gentle, the first day i suited up and sweated in the 95 high humidity heat and soon started stripping down to just my reg cloths, shorts, tee shirt and a vail, i can take stings any where but my eyes, ears.