Practicing My Beekeeping Skills

Usually I have the luxury of time when I'm deciding whether I'll engage in a new hobby or not. But the honeybees that showed up in my wood duck box have forced me to take a very different and, for me, an uncomfortable path with this new beekeeping hobby.
I've had to engage in a lot of retro-active-learning; reading, watching You-Tube videos and spending a bit of time performing real-time observations.  Not that I'm opposed to any of the activities above, but the point is, I've had to rush through it all.  Everything I decide to undertake, I prefer to make sure I know the majority of what I need to do before I'm actually doing it - evaluate at least most of the risks and then I will charge full-steam ahead.  But not when it comes to the lives of the animals for which I'm charged here. The stakes are too high if you fail in that 'hobby'.
Knowing that I needed to check my honeybee hive soon, I finally decided that yesterday (August 4th) was THE day.  I had been meaning to call my mentor, Calvin, and ask him if he could come and advise me along the way, but life kept getting in the way, and before I knew it, Saturday was here and I still hadn't called him.  "Suck it up, buttercup", I said to myself, "put on your big-girl panties and go do it".  So, I did.
I had been observing the hive and trying to determine how far along they were in their comb-building.  On July 8th, I had grabbed some video of the front landing area of the hive and then I had quickly peeked inside the top brood box to see what was happening.  I had only pulled one frame and, after seeing nothing much was going on, I quickly closed the hive and retreated.

But yesterday, on Aug. 4th, I was about to get my first lesson in how quickly things can change in 27 days, however.  I setup the video camera on a tri-pod next to the hive (Mr. Freeze still doesn't have a bee suit), to get a video of my first full-fledged bee hive inspection.  I think I made some small missteps along the way (ie, I think I may have over-smoked them), but over all, I didn't wreck anything.  I was able to check frames 2 through 5 and after watching the video below, I realized I forgot to check frame #1.  By the time I got through the 4 frames, in the 93+ degree heat though, I was ready to pass out anyway, so it was good that I stopped when I did. It's so hot & dry here, even the danged ragweed is turning a crispy, golden brown.
I was really glad that Calvin had convinced me to only have 9 frames in these 10-frame bodies - it leaves a lot of extra space for pulling frames out without rolling / crushing the bees.  All the frames I checked had capped brood (I incorrectly called it "capped honey" in the video) and/or larva, and honey dripped out of a few cells when I tilted them! Whoa - they have been BUSY. 
I only found 2 hive beetles on Aug. 4th on my old sticky board and today, Aug. 5th, I found one, and only one varroa mite.  From my amateur assessment, it's apparent, my girls are doing pretty well so far.

By the way, just in case you're looking for the perfect cloth wrap for thoroughly cooking your enemy in the sun, a Harvest Lane beekeeper suit is perfect for that.  Just sayin'.
After viewing the video below, I also realized that I really need someone with me to take close up pictures.  It's hard to convey the thrill of seeing the capped brood, an emerging baby bee and glistening honey in the sun, via words alone.  And I was terrified of moving the frames away from the hive to get closer to the video camera for fear of dropping my queen off on the rocks or in the grass (maybe that's not really something that happens often...fellow beeks?).
Here's my 17 minute- long video, in which I managed to NOT pass out. Maybe next time, I need to strap some ice packs to my body before I go down there.  I swear, my core temp today still feels like it's at 150 deg.  Hehe!

Frames 2 & 3 are pictured below.
You can click on the pictures below for a bigger view also.

A baby bee is emerging in the picture above.