when should I expand my bees?

[DDG1263]

I wanted to add a bunch of hive to my new hobby, and I know I have lost the bloom season, but it seems that it takes bees a while to just make comb when starting a new hive. How should I go about expanding this wonderful work. Should I start them now, and let them just build out their comb this year, or should I just build a bunch of hives and wait until next spring to establish new colonies? Thanks in advance.

[RayMarler]

Get them now. Feed them until they get you 2 deeps drawn and used. This way, you'll get good hives from over winter next spring, which will give you options to split and increase, or to get gallons of honey next year!

[tecumseh]

without feeding the quantity of useable frames that you may accumulate is limited to the spring time months. these drawn comb frames in tern will absolutely limit what kind of expansion you may experience next spring (typically spring or fall season).

there are any number of options... you can of course feed or buy established hives. the real decision (yours) is how fast do you wish to approach this objective. once this objective is determine this would somewhat to highly determine which (or both) of the above choices you might wish to utilize.