So your bees get to hear the airport? :)
I don't know about the source of the original frames of bees from the nuc from Hunter's, but Tracy told me that the queen was raised locally, (at Perdue University I think,) and was bread for mite/disease resistance from mostly Italian stock.
I have been meaning to call the state apiary inspector but I never get a chance to during the day. I just looked the contact info in the Hoosierbuzz.com newsletter. Kathleen Prough, DNR, right? I have to make that a priority.
I am using styrofoam hives. I just added a second medium to my nuc hive for a total of 2 deeps and 2 mediums. It looks like I will get at least one medium full of honey from this hive this year - probably more.
On the other hand, at the last inspection I noticed that the swarm hive was beginning to make a whole bunch of swarm cups on the bottoms of the frames. They got off to a great start, and were crowded in the areas that they had drawn out, (in 1 deep and 1 medium,) but they started off building off center and still had about 2 frames per box that they had not even touched, all on the same side. None of the cups I saw was very far along, but after noticing them I decided to go ahead and add another deep under the first one. This will probably only add to their 'vertical' nature, but I would rather deal with that than weaken them by losing a swarm at this point. It is too early to guess if I will take any honey from this hive this year. If they are this quick to go into swarm mode I will have to watch them very carefully next year. It is interesting to have hives from very different sources.
Bearding stopped about 2 to 3 weeks ago, the last time I added a box to each hive. A bit before that I shimmed up the covers to provide top entrances. Lately both hives tend to block up the most of the top entrances with a wall of bees, especially at night. I suppose they are trying to conserve heat, but since it has been so wet I was thinking that the if they are having a problem at all, it is not so much with temperature control as it is with humidity control. Or it could just be that the foragers are waiting for daylight and/or for less rain - and prefer the view from the top. :)