2nd year- 6a high desert. 8/15 swarm from my yard caught and put into 1/2 of a resource hive. Really fun btw. 1 1/2 pounds of bees. Been feeding ProSweet and pollen patties non stop and they look fantastic. Added upper and 4 more frames over so they are in a 4 X 4 setup presently. Have 4 full hive body frames of capped honey that I'm considering parking over the top of this for their winter setup and plugging up the other 1/2 of the resource hive with insulation (no dead air space next door).

Other full hives are getting mouse guard, coroplast sleeve, bee cozy, quilt/vent/vivaldi box, upper and bottom entrance, telescopic lid with foam insulation surrounding it like a cover, and the very top has a coroplast awning with very heavy block on top. Already did mite treatments in summer and now and feeding up to weight.

In addition to the configuration above is there anything else you would do? Moving it next to one of the big hives is obvious to me. Maybe a wind block behind it? Yes I know they are not poodle dogs.