About two months ago, I started a new backyard beehive, from a captured swarm.
About a month ago, I gave them a second full-depth box, because they were getting a bit crowded, and had nearly filled box #1 - just the frames on the ends had not been filled.
I opened the hive today to check on my girls. Holy cow, they have completely filled box #2. I only checked two frames on the upper box, but they were both packed full of honey, most of it capped (meaning it is ready to be harvested, if desired). A huge population of bees. Huge. I could see clearly that all the frames in that box had been fully drawn into combs.
So, I gave them a third full-depth box of empty frames to fill. I'll open it up again in a couple of weeks and go through the whole hive then (they won't be quite so crowded). I'll probably pull out some of the frames with the best capped honey and extract it so I can re-use the frames - I don't have enough empty frames to give them a fourth box, yet.
Since it's only mid-summer now, this bodes really well for a big honey crop. They will continue to store honey for another couple of months, probably. Sweet.
Sorry, no new pics.