The Rhode Island Apiary - Progress and Foundationless Frames

You may remember that one of our April 16th Russian packages was made into a nuc and transported to Rhode Island, joined with another nuc purchased at a local apiary.  This photo shows the activity after introduction into their new homes. 
Thankfully their energy dissipated quickly and they took to building up the comb in the hive, focusing on the bottom box.  Fearing that these colonies might grow quickly I added a second box just in case, then left them to themselves for four weeks.

Well I returned this last weekend to determine their fates.  It was excellent news.  Both hives were thriving, although they had yet to expand to the upper box.  The Russians had filled the lower box:

Of equal interest was the progress of the foundationless frames, the frames modified simply using a wedge-top bar, like this:

Here is the progress to date on one frame:

The comb was straight and well-developed.  A success I would say!