First hive Inspection - couple of questions...

[Boom Buzz]

Completed a hive inspection today  - the package was installed on April 8.
Everything is looking good so far - there are eggs and some pupa further along (curled at the bottom of the cell), uncapped honey (sugar water) and lots of pollen.  Saw the queen.

There were three frames that were loaded with bees and all the stuff mentioned above.  Maybe one additional frame with some bees and honey.

Most of the comb was from last year.  There was very little new comb.  Do the bees tend to use the existing comb first, then make new comb as needed?  I expected to see allot more new comb.

The bee cluster and active frames were concentrated on one side of the hive - the north side, which would tend to stay cooler, getting less direct sun.  The frames on the south side were untouched - no existing comb and no new comb.  I probably put the frames with the existing comb concentrated more on the north side.  So I would guess thats where they started most of the activity due to where they found existing comb to work with!?  I shifted all the frames down a couple to get the cluster more in the middle and put empty frames on the sides.  Not sure if this was necessary, but I would expect it doesn't hurt either!?

Thanks for any input - having lots of fun!!!

[Two Bees]

Bees prefer drawn comb and will use it first.  Just like humans, it's less work!

Centering the frames a bit is ok.