I got my first hive a week ago (Carniolan X Italian) and opened it yesterday

[OzBuzz]

So i opened up my hive yesterday (I'm in Australia) - weather was perfect, no wind, 26oC, sunny... couldn't have asked for better.

Obviously being my first time solo i was a tad nervous but the bees were great - i didnt have any stings, none flew at me, none even landed on me.

I puffed some smoke at the entrance, lifted the lid and puffed some smoke under there... let it sit. Removed the lid and put it on the ground beside the hive...error no 1! Don't stand the frame you take out in an upturned lid - it gets full of bees and is hard to put back on. So i took my frame out and sat it on the side (Frame #8) - this frame had been in there about a week and a half as my hive was made from a four frame nucleus. Frame #8 & Frame #1 were fully drawn out and full of nectar (not yet capped). Frame #7 & Frame #2 had nice areas of uncapped brood with some capped both frames were almost full of visible pupa about to be capped. There was a nice area of capped honey at the top of the frame (about 1/4 of its height) and on the outsides were some pollen stores although not a huge amount. I found the queen on frame #6 walking around happily - Frame #6 & Frame #3 were about 50/50 capped brood and empty cells although me being an idiot forgot to look for fresh eggs - i'm assuming the empty cells would have had mostly new eggs in them. Again a nice layer of capped honey at the top of the frames with some small pollen stores  around the outer edges. Frame #5 & Frame #4 was mostly uncapped brood with some empty cells (which would possibly have contained eggs or else the queen was working her way back to them from the outside). Again nice layer of capped honey about the brood with some pollen stores around the outer edges of the brood nest.

When i purchased the hive the guy i bought it from suggested i put another box on about two weeks after getting the hive... should i put it on as a honey super with a queen excluder or should i put it on as a second brood box? a brood box would be handy coz it would mean i could do an early split in spring but i also don't want to have the hive run out of food stores over winter...

[iddee]

Second brood box, if you are in a warm climate. "no frost"

[OzBuzz]

I purchased some additional boxes etc the other day... two are deeps and then there are two other mediums. The mediums come with frames of fully drawn (disease free) comb and the deeps come with no frames etc. I was thinking of putting the two mediums wih drawn comb on as additional brood boxes and then, in spring, putting hem above a queen excluder to convert them to honey supers after installing a second deep brood box with new foundation. Sounds like a good idea? or should i just put on a deep and let the bees draw out fresh comb. I'm in Melbourne, Australia - winters can get crisp although they're forecasting a warm-ish wet winter

[OzBuzz]

Based on my inspection observations above i'm thinking about providing some supplementary feeding as we're coming in to the winter... I'm going to do another inspection this weekend if the weather is warm enough to see what their stores are like and i will go ahead and put on the two medium boxes with drawn foundation so they have ample opportunity to store sufficient stores. What i am wondering though is when should i start feeding? I'm, based on what i have read here going to use the 1 part water to 2 parts sugar mix. There will be some ongoing nectar flows through autumn/winter but i want to make sure that if they're a bit quiet they still have enough. Should i put out some sugar syrup now and just let them choose when they will feed from it? i guess the sugar syrup will be a good indicator as to how the flow is going correct? and is the 1:2 ratio the right one to use to help them have sufficient winter stores? The two medium boxes with already drawn comb still have some honey in them from when they were extracted so that will provide some food for them prior to eating the sugar syrup...

[OzBuzz]

Ok, so i opened my hive for the second time today and did an inspection. My intention in doing this was to add another box as it was suggested i do that prior to winter. I had a single 8 frame brood box only. The box was made just over three weeks ago from a four frame nucleus and four frames of new foundation.

So i opened it today and WOW! there was no room left at all! frames 1 & 8 were 70% full on both sides of capped honey. The rest of the frames were crammed full with pollen, brood and capped honey. There were very few empty cells and the ones that were empty i think were only such because the brood had come out. So the majority of brood was capped - i did see some uncapped pupae. I couldn't see any new eggs as the light wasnt great.

What alarmed me though is on one of the frames about halfway down from the top was the start of a queen cup! only the top cup section had been formed so far. I did find the queen and she was happily strolling around on one of the other frames... there was only this one cup in the hive. I'm guessing because the hive was crammed full that it would probably have been a swarm cell but swarm cells arent normally smack bang in the middle of the frame/comb are they? What is everybodys thoughts? Also, the queen is only young...

We're coming in to winter so i added two medium supers with already drawn comb on to give them some room to expand their stores... did i do the right thing? Is there anything else i should do? have i stopped swarming or is this a supersedure?

Any advice would be appreciated

[AllenF]

Did you remove the queen cell?   

[OzBuzz]

G'day Allen, Yeah i did remove the cell...

I started another post on the topic here: Opened my three week old hive today and WOW! but advice needed please only because i changed the title when i replied in this thread but it didnt reflect in the main forum title so didnt seem relevant to what i was asking