As the Sergeant and I were working in the garden the other day, I couldn't resist taking a peek at the bees' progress through the hive window. It had been about 3 1/2 weeks since I'd caught them, and while they seemed to have settled in well, judging from the steady traffic at the entrance, I was curious about how much comb they'd built, and where.The Sergeant snapped this shot with his phone. The bees have built about 10 bars of comb. Oddly enough, they've started in the middle of the hive and not near the entrance. I should find out whether I need to move them closer to the front. My instinct says yes, but if you know for sure, please leave a comment.
Anyway, it's nice to see they're so industrious!
Hello! Your bees started building in the middle because that is where the brood nest (all the eggs and larvae) is always located. It's easiest to keep protected there, and to keep warm in the winter. Those frames are the most important and the bees start building them first in order to be able to build up more population. Then they start building outwards, those are the frames that they'll fill with pollen and honey. So don't move the frames around - the bees know what they're doing and you'll likely kill off a large section of the population if you change up the brood frames. :)
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