Got the bees last night. When the nucs went into the hive bodies, I put the empty feeder and 3 empty foundationless frames in as well for the trip home. One of the frames from the nuc was broken so the guy gave me an extra frame to replace it. Just told me to rotate the broken one out after the brood hatches.
I grabbed the first hive off the back of my truck this morning and heard nothing. I grabbed the second hive and a bee came flying out from somewhere and flew away, I checked my entrances on both hives and they were still well sealed. Maybe it survived the 3 1/2 hours drive under the hive. The second hive was buzzing.
I took the hives to the field, got them on the stand and opened the entrances. Naturally I forgot the entrance reducers in the house.
I stood back about 5 feet in front of the hives to observe. The hive that was quiet, I only saw 1 bee emerge, carrying a dead bee. The hive that was buzzing, the bees slowly started coming out, sat for a couple minutes then started flying around in circles. They not only checked out the hive, they started buzzing around me. I decided that I didn't want to be used as a landmark so I went to the house to grab they food and reducers.
When I got back, quite a few more were flying around and one was at the entrance with it's butt in the air. Even though they didn't seem aggressive at all, I suited up (jacket and veil) and opened them up. The quiet hive looked great. That was the hive with the broken frame and the frame was sitting completely down. I decided to move a couple empty frame between the full frames and set the broken one up the best I could. I'll go out later with a nail or screw and fix it so that it stays up. This was the hive that had what looked like a cluster of cups, I looked at it closer and it's burr comb build off the side of the other comb with some drone cells pointing down. There was larva in them.
Even after messing with the hive, they still didn't seem interested in checking out their new home. I went to put them back together and I realized I left the inner covers in the house. :roll:
The second hive was pretty active. I took the cover off and had a stare down with a thousand bees. I filled their feeder and was going to put one of the empty frames between the full frames but when I started lifting the empty, it already had comb started that was about 3 - 3 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 - 2 inches wide. I empty frame next to it had bees festooning on it. I left those frames alone, put the pollen patty on and closed up.
They bees have been in the hive for about 14 hours, 3 1/2 was driving time and they're already filling frames. They're also tiny and very dark. I'll go out this afternoon to put the inner covers on and try to remember my camera to take a few pictures. After that, I'll leave them alone for 2 days, then check on their food. I was rushed because I woke up an hour late and was worried that they were going to overheat. The back of my truck is black and you know how fast that heats up when the sun hits it.