Nice looking apiary. Are the hives tilted to keep out rainwater? I believe my husband was going to do that, but we never had a problem with water in the hives and so never tilted them.
We've had some developments. Hubby let the queen out and then the nuc was attacked by red ants and many of the bees left. Hubby slathered petroleum jelly around the edges of the hive lid the nuc is sitting on (ours has metal attached to the lid) and this effectively halted the ant invasion, but only a few bees remained. Our bee guy recommended trying to take more bees from the old hive and said all we can do is hope that they will accept the queen that is in the nuc. Hubby says they didn't sound happy when he locked them in.
Also, I got a call today that the nucs we ordered will be here by the end of the week. If Hester of the Nuc survives, that will put us at four hives total, but we only have three full setups of double deeps and extra mediums. One of my kids wants a hive of his own, so we made him a deal that if he bought a bottom board, cover, and lid, Daddy would give him a deep, a medium, and the frames to get his hive started, so we won't be short hives and the kiddo will get his own bees.
So, we're still waiting to discover the fate of our one remaining hive as well as the fate of Hester of the Nuc and waiting on our new arrivals. All this excitement has about done me in!
I will be heading to Lowes this week and will see how much corrugated plastic costs. I'm thinking about sliding some on top of the cinder blocks under each hive so I can slather petroleum jelly under each hive to protect our bees from the ants. Maybe it will keep the creepy cockroaches out, too. *shudder*