How often may I look in a new Top Bar colony?

[elderken]

I did a very rugged cutout of a feral hive in a space under a boulder in the desert. Vacuumed 3 or so pounds of bees, and got 8 good pieces of brood comb, and a little honey.
I did NOT get a queen.
I attached the comb to my bars with hair clips and zip ties a la: Taylor McCartney.
After three days they seem to have settled down and are coming and going well.

I live in Rimrock, AZ at 3500' elevation. Very similar climate to Austin TX, just a lot dryer.

Questions:

• How often can I peek inside to see what they're doing without scaring them away? (I really want to watch how they deal with the comb attachment and how they work the brood.)
  
• How often should I check for cross-combing? (I'm concerned that my hair clip attachment is not the straightest or greatest.)
  
• What about feeding?  I used to have a mason jar feeder with syrup on a bird bath 10 feet from the hive.  I now have honey, but have read that if I open feed, I should keep it a long way from the Hive.  How far?  Or should I open the box and use the jar feeders with honey inside the hive?  My top bar hive is only 36" long, and using interior jar feeder will reduce that by 5".
  

Here's my hive box:
(Opps! Not yet enough posts to be able to include pics.  Well, later...)
The cluster of bees in the upper left is tending a 2"x3" piece of brood comb I trimmed making the larger comb fit. They have been on it since I dumped the bees into the box.
Yesterday, day 3, I saw a lot of dead bees being taken out of the box. Still haven't seen any pollen going in. There's a small bit of honey comb in the box.

Thx!

Ken
"Practicing Christlikeness"
Luke 9:23-27

[jayj200]

At the absolute maximum once a week as we do down here. less than that would be more appropriate even here. once a month is recommended.

I know we need a bee fix use restraint. get more than one so.s ya can do one a week

REMEMBER TO TURN FOUNDATION-LESS COMBS LATERALLY NOT HORIZONTALLY

Cut out the hair clips after they attach the comb well

[elderken]

Jay, you said something similar to what I'd planned to do but with a twist that really pleases me.  I am working to get more colonies; now, with your advise, I'll stagger my inspections so I can "get my fix" more often.

Thanks!

[Steel Tiger]

 Lots of people put windows into their topbar hives. It doesn't seem to bother the bees much. It might be an option to just sit around and watch them as the work.

[BeeMaster2]

Elderken,
Since you did not get the queen, or at least did not think so, I would check them at the one week mark, looking for queen cells. If there are none, look for eggs/brood. If you have eggs and brood, you did get the queen. If you have queen cells, you did not, close it up and wait 3 weeks before you inspect it again to allow your new queen to hatch. A week to strengthen, mate and get some brood going. If you are in the hive, disturbing it, filling it full of smoke, before this queen gets a chance to prove she is a good queen, they may blame her for your disturbances and kill her.
If you can, you might want to do your inspections at 10 day intervals.
As noted before, be careful picking up the frames, new comb is very fragile. Even old comb will break off if you try to turn them wrong.
Jim

[elderken]

ST & Jim,
Thanks for sharing your experience!  I have another TB box ready to assemble.  It has a window.
Until I get another colony, I'll leave these alone for another 3 weeks. 
Since I posted, yesterday, I did open the box.  Here's what I found:

• Bees very active on the brood comb from the cutout.
  
• Some bridging between them.
  I didn't pull the bars, so don't know if they are working on queen cells.
  
  • The two empty front-most bars closest to entrance had a ton of bees festooning from the bars.
    
  • I installed a mason jar feeder with honey behind a division board with a 3/4" hole at the end of the box.
    I can fill the feeder without lifting any hive bars
    I finally saw pollen being taken into the hive.
  
  I really do appreciate you sharing with me.

[BeeMaster2]

Elderken,
You will want to check on this hive to determine if you need a queen. About a week after you placed them in the hive not 3 weeks. At this point you either have queen cells or brood or neither. If q cells give it 3 weeks for the q to get mated and established. If brood your q survived and for training purposes you can do your inspections about every 10 days. In neither get a queen or a frame of eggs.
Jim