Update on our bees

We bought bees from Christy, (Wolf Creek) and they have been doing great. I built the hive completely out of scrap. So far the only cost we have is the bees, the veil and a little bit of sugar until they get established. These bees will be treatment free. Micheal Bush put it best when he said you are either part of the problem or you are part of the solution. You are either adding crappy genetics to your local bee population by propping up hives that can't survive or you are part of the solution by letting them make it on their own.






















This is about 3 hours after install



The next day all the dead had been taken out:




After 24 hours, I am glad I did not wait any longer to pull the queen cage.



And on day 5 they had built 3 or 4 of these:

GREAT job on the hive & OUTSTANDING pictures! I especially like the light on that comb on the queen cage! Beautiful!
My husband has been building the Warre-style hives (4 out of 6 made it through the winter; 1 already swarmed, which we caught and introduced to a new hive, so now we have 5). This is only my 3rd year beekeeping, so I am still learning as I go.
This quote is particularly relevant to me:

You are either adding crappy genetics to your local bee population by propping up hives that can't survive or you are part of the solution by letting them make it on their own.

I often wonder whether I am helping the bees by catching the swarms, or whether it would be better to not try to influence their decision on where to go!

Here is a quick update. The first hive exploded. Packed away honey filled the hive with about 3ft worth of comb and then they all died over the winter. They still had honey.

The good news is I also caught a swarm Detailed Here, and they kicked butt and made it through. I purchased 2 more packages from wolf creek, this time only 6 hours from here in TN. Hopefully they will be a little better for the winter. One package was for my father in law and they are in a warre hive I built for him. The other package repopulated my first hive.

This is my local swarm. I think they may have found some pollen...