One Month In - Brood

We released our package bees exactly a month ago. Sunday was the best class ever. Our instructors were brief and focused inside so we could get out to the beeyard sooner. Thanks, guys!

I'd already put a second medium on the brood box a couple weeks ago. With a three-pound package, I started with 10-12,000 bees, so I estimate I've got about 35,000 now, thanks to my queen (read: egg slave). 

Instead of completely filling the brood box, the girls built upward. The result: two half-filled mediums. Clay showed me how to rearrange the frames to get the optimal arrangement: honey frames on the outsides, then pollen, then brood in the center. Fullest frames to the east since the girls like to go west. We moved the empty and drawn comb frames to the top box, and made sure all the frames are evenly spaced to ensure bee space.

What's bee space? It is the exact amount of space bees need to move freely through the hive. Too much space, they'll build comb. Too little, they'll seal the space with propilis. Bee space. About 3/8 of an inch.