**a bee in the sky**

Hello!

I am a new beekeeper with only 9 weeks worth of experience so far.  I have 2 colonies of bees, both from the same beekeeper. The beekeeper that I got my bees from, raises small/natural cell bees without harsh chemicals of any kind. He also is starting to use only foundation-less frames, instead of forking over money for small-cell foundation. These bees are hybrids that were breed locally to withstand winter better than package bees shipped up from Georgia. 

First, I got a 7 deep-frame nuc on May 11th. I named it Hive Anne, to limit confusion for myself. After inspecting it, I discovered that Anne had 2 frames filled, from top-to-bottom, with honey/nectar. The other five frames contained brood, pollen and some honey. With all this honey, I didn’t bother to feed them. Now I am worried that Hive Anne has nosema. I will go more in depth about this concern in another post.

Second, I went back to the beekeeper three weeks after having Hive Ann and bought a 3 1/2 frame nuc. The forthframe was only 1/2 way filled with comb. So on June 1st, that was the arrival of Hive Bella! I first put it in a 5 frame observation hive, but they got overcrowded quickly, so I decided to cut the comb to fit into my TBH(Top Bar Hive). I ended up with 11 bars that had comb from the cut-out on them. I love TBHs! The bees are noticeably calmer and less stressed out in Hive Bella. Hive Anne is the only hive that has given me stings, so far. These are the 2 hives I have now, and I do hope for more!

K.