I am completely new to Beekeeping.
My father had a hive that he hasn't tended for 3yrs. at least that I just moved to my property. I'm curious about what to expect and where to start. Here's what I've done so far just to start.
Old SBB was rotten so I replaced it with a new plastic one with vents.
Current set up is 1 deep 2 medium no excluder or inner cover.
The deep hive body looks bad so I have a replacement ready to swap out. I haven't been through the hive to look at the frames due to it still being rather cool most days. I live in SW TN.
I also have a new medium with new wax coated plastic frames for honey(I hope) and an excluder.
How should I procede?
IMHO, I would wait for a calm sunny day, temps in the mid 60's, after about 10am and simply replace the old equipment. Use the inner cover, it does make top cover removal simpler. It doesn't sound like there's an emergency. These bees have been unattended for 3 years and yet have managed to survive, what's another month?
When you transfer the frames to the new equipment make sure to respect the brood chamber arrangement. You know, put them back like you found them. Make sure not to roll the queen, remove an outer frame first, move slowly and give the bees time to move out of the way. Use smoke but don't choke them out. Inspect the frames, look for bad smells, get to know your bees. The dummies book is a OK starting point but the only thing that gets you in this game is hands on. Books give a lot of good information but experience trumps books every time.
The people on this forum have helped me more than can be stated not just with specific questions but by reading old posts. Lots of experienced beekeeping knowledge in here, you just gotta dig a little. Listen to what others offer but remember you make your own choices. There is really no right or wrong answers. Bottom line, what works and aids the bees is right, what hinders and hurts the bees is wrong. I made some bad choices and some good choices this last year but, I wouldn't trade it for any other hobby.