I opened the boxes and saw what all they sent me. When I pulled the Suppers out of the shipping box the frames all fell out of course, I can be such a Dummy.
Looked everything over and made some repairs to the frames, The plastic just had to be popped back into place.
I watched a video about how to seal the boxes before painting, that seemed like a good idea so I went and bought some silicon caulking yesterday to seal the cross grain at the ends of the boxes before I paint them. Yesterday was warm so I dug in the garden, tomorrow is cold and snowing so I will be in the basement painting.
It is late in the season to order bees so I had some trouble finding what I wanted. The guy who had Russian Queens was sold out, several more calls including the Local Bee Association did not help much. I was given a link to mail order Russian Bees from Ky but they were pretty pricey. I found an old bee keeper that still had Italian Bees with a Queen for $90. That was about $70 less than the mail order place in Ky so my thinking is to go ahead with the Italian bees, and if they die next winter replace them with Russian Bees. If they make it Good, if they don't I am only out about $35. There is always the chance that even the Russian Bees would die the 1st year so I thought it was a good risk to take. Like I said before, you pays your money you takes your chances.
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.