May 2013 update

May 11...checked Warre hive minimally by lifting three boxes up several inches (thanks, Lee and Jon) to snap a picture to see what's happening inside.  There is no comb built on the bars of the lowest box and through the bars in the photo, one can see that bars visible in the box above have no comb. Although I can hear the steady buzz of bees in the top box and the middle box and the three boxes have been glued together by the bees with propolis, my conclusion is that this is a small hive that will have sufficient space for this summer...and perhaps beyond. The bees seem healthy, no mites or dead bees observed on the floor.  Seems to be a good population flying out on warm days, returning with pollen and nectar. So, I plan to let them be bees, doing what they know best. At some point they will requeen naturally, and this will be as wild a hive as a backyard can have, which was the goal in the beginning. The honey is a bonus, although I did get sidetracked for awhile and focused too much on that. However, I can buy very good local honey fairly inexpensively and that suits fine.

Empty bars in lowest Warre box