Progress Report on the Second Week for New Hives

I anticipated that the Catherine hive would be far ahead of the Alexandra hive this week since they've had the second deep box on for seven days but they haven't begun to draw out the frames. They haven't been taking the syrup either, which tells me they're still storing it in the lower box.

The Alexandra hive has done a great job of drawing out eight frames but they've been sucking down the syrup like crazy to store it in the lower box. I added a second deep box today so plan to leave them alone for a couple weeks now to let them work on drawing comb without much interference.

We've had a week of off and on rain so the ants love the dry, dark space between the articulating cover and the inner covers. HINT: A good coating of cinnamon usually keeps them away as they don't like the strong scent. Leaving the articulating cover off during the day would encourage the ants to move along but I couldn't do that because of the rain. Now the hives smell like cinnamon buns and the bees don't mind it.