Unwrapping the bees

April 28I have woodenware now for another hive.  This year I want to get a second nuc, and still be prepared in case hive #1 splits.  This will step me up to a different league of beekeeping.  A not-yet-serious, but not-quite-casual league.  Bees take quite a bit of time and work, more than is immediately apparent, and I´ll notice the difference if I double them.I was in the apiculture supplier´s retail space, waiting for my order to be gathered up, when the cashier commented to me "That´s so nice, that you still use wood and wax".As in, "Isn´t that quaint".I was actually startled.  I had been marveling at the towers of styrofoam prefab hives, but when she said that, I was hit by how now wood is the exception.  That´s why they have to dig it out of the back room.  Everything is plastic.  Plastic frames, plastic foundation, plastic hive parts now.  No assembly, nails, or skill required.Someone rolled through a minute later inspecting my growing pile of un-assembled woodenware and thoughtfully told his partner that that wood would "probably be nicer, for when you have to burn them".Yeah!! On the awful occasion that you have to bonfire hives because of disease, YES, it might be "nicer" to torch wood and wax and wire than 40 pounds of plastic and extruded polystyrene!This left me thinking:

1. What is the world coming to?
2. What about when the plastic runs out?
3. How awful for the BEES!

If it´s bad for us to drink out of plastic water bottles and live with off-gassing carpet, are the bees supposed to be unaffected in a 100% plastic house, growing from larvae on a plastic bed, living in a plastic box sitting in the sun?I unwrapped the hive a few days early.  Hot weather.  By all signs, they wintered well and are thriving.i ripped the tarpaper off the front, and the styrofoam insulation, and scooped most of the straw out of the bee lounge.There was a moisture breach and quite a bit of mold on the front corner of the bee lounge (aka eke), but I guess that´s what it´s there for - there doesn´t seem to be water or mold incursion past the inner cover.The bees are polishing off syrup jars quite rapidly already.