New hives

[alflyguy]

I’ve come through my first winter unscathed with both of the hives I started last year doing well. Both of them have supers on and the girls are filling them nicely. I plan to start two more hives, from packages in about a week. Can I put the new ones in the yard with my two established hives? Should I be concerned about robbing because of feeding the new hives? Are there any other concerns with putting new packages near established hives?

[Two Bees]

You should be able to locate your new packages in the same yard.  Make sure you put an entrance reducer on the new package hives to help reduce the possibility of robbing.  Once they have drawn comb and built up their numbers, you can remove the reducer.