It's fine to use a single hive body for start up. At least one commercial apiary uses a super as a hive body.Well, that is embarrassing! - It seems i was ripped off two years ago when i bought my first bee-hives. Yesterday i started to sand down my hive boxes, finished two bases, one brood-box and two honey-supers when i noticed that next brood-box was covered in an unusual thick layer of paint, so thick that my 80 grade paper clogged up immediately and i had to switch to the coarsest paper i had, grade 25. Then the paint started to create little "worms":
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After a lot of peeling and sanding a big chunk of stuff came off the box and revealed this:
The next brood-box had the same layer of thick paint applied and then one of its corners came off:
So apparently both boxes have been damaged by termites and before selling them they were patched up with some "stuff" and covered in a thick layer of paint to hide the damage. Now i know how the water and the cold air came into the hive…
@R2elk - i assume those boxes are beyond repair and should only be used to store unused frames in my garage, right?
Dang, i'm down to two brood boxes now and will receive a nuc and a package of bees withing the next two weeks, guess i will startup both hives with one box only then…