someguyinmaine, I just bought two unassembled hives from Betterbee. Trust me, I couldn't buy the materials for what these two hives cost and it's real high quality wooden ware. It takes at least a day to assemble and paint each hive. Four hive boxes(supers) are dovetail jointed and get glued and nailed. Then there are ten frames that get nailed and glued together for each of the four boxes. I built my own base to keep the hive off the ground and it has an angled landing board. I bought a styrofoam hive top feeder that gets painted same as the styrofoam top. I am awaiting 2 nucs coming from Georgia in a week or so.

I would live them alone. There is a great chance that you can get offspring's from this colony when you put up your box as a bait when they swarm....most likely they will and looking for a new home. You can take out some comb, on on the ends only, this will ensure you have no brood and or damage the queen, [queen is always around the brood] place it in yours for bait and put it up somewhere high but not close to this hive. Scout bees will search for new home first. It's very difficult to hive a cut out, most likely you'll loose or kill the queen and then it's game over. A cut out needs to be 100% cleaned out and sealed, the smell of wax will lure bees there for many years and will establish a new colony if not sealed 100%. Think it over, a roof is a risky business, ...think safety first. You can always come back after bees moved into your box, experiment if you feel up to. Not sure your area and when swarm season is....it's always good to keep some boxes up all summer, ...I had many go in, I love swarm bees, they work twice as hard to establish a new colony, it's simply unreal how fast they can pack a full super of honey...so much fun!

Yes you can, and you should, if you can move them to a protected location. The longer they stay out, the more birds and bugs can get to them. In particular parasitic wasps. Move them to an unheated garden shed or garage location. Avoid locations that overheat in the summer sun. The important thing is to move them slowly, gently, and without bumping them. If the larvae get jarred loose from their food supply, they are unable to reattach and will starve. So I've read anyway, so I play it safe and handle them with care. Once Fall rolls around, you can handle them with wild abandon. The are fully cocooned and dormant by then. I try to have my bees into the garden shed by the first of June. That's good enough to avoid most of the parasitic wasps. In fact, the sooner the better.

After 50 yr. of beekeeping, I have some "unbiased" opinions, and suggestions. I do however live in N. Indiana and the climate is just a bit different from CA. Likewise, bee management is a bit different too. You may find that making your own supers (5 3/8' or 6 1/4") and hive bodies (9 1/8") may be more expensive than buying them outright, because of waste lumber in the process. The dimensions above are frame sizes. The supers and hive bodies are a bit deeper in order to provide what is known as the "bee space". That's the space that bees are least likely to fill with wax and propolis (bee glue). If you are young, and stronger than you are intelligent, go ahead and use the full depth hive bodies. ;-) My preference is the 6 1/4" super. Three of them provide the same space for the brood chamber as two 9 1/8" bodies. Additionally, you can use them for supers, and in that way, all of your equipment is of uniform size; AND when you get old, you'll still be able to pick 'em up. A full-depth hive body full of honey, weighs over 65# and you are picking it up with the tips of your fingers in the shallow "handholds" on the sides! Foundation: The sheets of wax that are placed in the frames. (I apologize if I'm telling you things that you are already quite aware of.) There are at least 3 options. 1/ A plastic sheet coated with pure beeswax and the cell bases impressed on it. 2/ A sheet of pure beeswax only, with the cell bases on it. 3/ And a sheet of pure beeswax with the cell bases, and with crimped wires imbedded in it to help prevent sagging of the comb. The inside temp. of the hive is approx. 92 and beeswax melts at 153Â to 154Â. So it is getting a little soft at 92Â. The problem with the "beeswax & plastic sandwich" is that the bees often chew the wax off of the plastic down in the corners and those areas are then wasted space. This may be an even bigger problem In Calif. than here, because of the "slower" honey flows, but that is only a guess on my part. I have no doubt that your hearing is good, but the information wasn't! If you place one frame with foundation in it, in the center of the hive body or super, and the rest of the frames are open, you will be severely disappointed! The bees will probably build the center comb in the frame, but don't expect the rest of the combs to be where you want 'em. The natural spacing of honeycombs is 1 3/8" from center to center to center. (The honeybee is a European insect and I can't for the life me understand why they didn't use the metric measuring system!) Given the opportunity to be creative, they will deviate from that "rule" somewhat, and wind up with some of the combs built across through 2 or 3 frames. Believe me, it takes a lot of profanity to get those combs out of the hive. Secondly, it is probably against Calif. State law, to have cross-comed hives because, the bee inspectors can't get into the hive to check for diseases. They will kill the bees and burn the combs here in Indiana. You should not have posted your question my friend. I seem not to know where to quit. ItÂs a common failing with beekeepers. ;-) Good luck! YouÂre in for a lifetime of fascination-!!! ibeewise (Paul)