# From a Swarm to Our First Langstroth

*Post 2 of 29 in the AZ Hive series*

Two days after the swarm arrived, we already had a bigger box.

May 8, 2020 — a quick run to Tractor Supply for a 10-frame Langstroth deep. The bees needed a real home, and we needed somewhere to put them.

Here’s the rookie part: I put two deeps on day one. I had no clue what I was doing, and “more space is better” felt right at the time. It is not. A small swarm needs a small space — they’ll fill it as they grow. Stacking two deeps on a freshly hived swarm just gives them too much volume to keep warm.

I pulled the second box off a day or two later. The bees seemed to forgive me.

By Saturday, May 9, we had a second hive set up — empty for now, but ready for whatever showed up next. About then I also started getting a little artsy with the wood burner. If you’re going to keep bees, the boxes might as well look like something.

Three days in: two hives, one mistake corrected, and a lot of questions piling up. How do you actually inspect one of these things? When do you feed? What’s a frame supposed to look like when it’s right? With bee club meetings still shut down, the answers had to come from somewhere else.

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**Next:** *The Early Days* — swarm traps, vented hive bottoms, and the first homemade modifications.