Should i treat my 4 pound packages any different compared to 3 pound packages? As in more frames when they start out, a full deep and another with 5 frames? :?
If the weather is still unsettled, give em about 4 to 5 frames in a deep with a division board. They'll manage the space better and keep moving the board over every couple weeks as they grow. The same general rules apply. Don't add room until the area they are working is 70-80% full of bees.
One thing you can do with 4 lbs packages, is order 2 queens per package, and split them into 2 colonys right off the git go. They'll take almost the same amount of time to overcome the dwindling and start building up. I wouldn't do it if is still cold where you are, but if it's warm.......
Its my first year, and im getting two hives allready. :-\ Thanks curious if their are any other suggestions?
Here in ohio its still pretty warm but I wouldn't put my self in the clear till after mothers day. Even then (with todays world climate) it could snow again.
I put three pound packages in five frame medium depth nucs. I'd put a four pound in an eight frame medium or a five frame deep if I had them. A ten frame deep is PLENTY large enough for a four pound package of bees to get started in.
Certainly not something you have to do. Just trying to save you some money. Beekeeping ain't cheap. And two hives are better than one, because resources from one can save the other if something goes awry. I don't know what you paid for your package, but the price of a queen cuts your package price by about 2/3.
While this is a hobby for me, I try to do it without digging to deep into my kick. This last incarnation of my beekeeping hobby turned a hive gifted to me into 3. I bought 10 packages, started all of them with some drawn comb, and split the strong ones again. I combined a few back in the fall, and lost one dink over winter. Still managed to sell over 700lbs of honey, (and I charge a premium price) and gave away another slug to potential customers. Not a bonanza, but I'm being hounded for honey weekly. I'm sure I will sell every bit I get.
My mentor was a commercial beek and although they are a pleasure, they aren't pets to me. Neither do I expect to make my fortune from them. But I do expect them to carry some of the load. No welfare bees here. By the by.... anyone heard from Finski lately?