Question on my timing

Just placed my nuc 50 hrs. ago. My girls are already bringing in pollen like crazy. I have a pollen patty on top of the frames and a top feeder on the hive. I have to go out of state for a week on Thursday. I am going ahead and doing an inspection on Wednesday before I leave. Just curious… should I take the top feeder off and the pollen patty also, and should I go ahead and put the second brood box on? I will be gone for about a week and don’t want the girls to feel they are running out of room. I will know more after Wednesdays inspection even though I really don’t want to open everything up already since it has only been 4 days since they were placed. It was a 5 frame nuc that I installed. Any opinions would be appreciated.

Unless you have a storming nectar flow at the moment, i doubt they will fill the space in a week. I wouldn’t put another box on. If you feel that you absolutely have to, put the new box underneath the existing box - brood warmth rises and that will decrease the work that the colony has to do to keep their babies warm.

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If they are using the food, I would leave them on. I might leave them on anyway, the worst that could happen is a little mold, and that won’t hurt the bees. As you are using a hive top feeder, and you have a nuc, I don’t think they will suffer a lot of robbing unless the feeder leaks a lot. Especially if you have reduced the entrance for them.