Festooning on the 1st bar

One question keeps been ask about the TBH. Why use foundation? Isn't the idea of a TBH suppose to be about all natural? Well ... yes, but I'm no expert at this, so last thing I wanted was new wax breaking during an inspection. Notice in the pictures the type of foundation I chose: Is wire reinforce wax.

A few days ago I figured out the best way to take good pictures through the observation window.

For weeks I have been fighting three hurdles when taking pictures via the observation window of the TBH; the sunlight reflection off the plexy glass, the reflection of the camera’s flash on the window, and the camera’s auto focus.
Dusk and early morning (light is not over my shoulder) turned out to be the best times to take pictures.
By reading online I learned that turning the camera upside down is an old pro’s tip to reduce glare on subjects during close ups, this greatly reduces the flashes glare.
The auto focus problem is created when bees attempt to attack my face the minute I open the window and get up close (you wouldn’t like a voyeur on your bedroom window either). The camera can’t seem to make up its mind between the bees on the window and the bees in the background. It has been a long time since I used the manual focus.
Regardless, I finally got some good pictures and now I can inspect the progress.
Here are a couple of pictures I took today. The 1st shows the bees festooning. It took me a while to figure out what the clump was about, but they are festooning the way I drew the lines. This means they are preparing to draw out comb on the 1st bar. Technically is the 2nd bar. The 1st bar is a hollowed out bar that allows the bees to move up to the NUC cavity.

Finally, good activity in the THB. The last pictures are close ups of this next picture.
Close up of center show the bees have sealed in between all the Top bars.
Close up of top right ……. Little unwanted SHB visitor. If they get bad I’ll think about baiting a trap in the inspection drawer.