Hive Inspection 3rd February

The weather almost hit 65 deg. F in Livermore last Wednesday and I was keen to open the hive up to see what the bees had been up to since the second box was added. I was totally shocked to find that not only were the bees surviving but they had been busily building new honey comb. I took a movie of the whole process and from that I could extract still images of each frame.

I'm afraid I was completely hopeless at seeing what the situation was with each frame but here's my summary. The frames are number in the order they were removed with frame 1 furthest away from the house (facing south). Photographs of the frames follow on.

Top Box
Frame 1: Empty but bees hanging
Frame 2: Comb building with largest lobe approximately hand sized
Frame 3: Almost full frame of new comb with just the edges to build. Some honey.
Frame 4: Full frame of mainly uncapped honey. This was the frame that was moved up from the bottom box when the top box was added.
Frame 5: Almost full frame of new comb with just the edges to build.
Frame 6: Two big lobes of new comb, roughly filling 1/2 the frame. No honey.
Frame 7: Bees starting to build comb with the biggest lobe 1 x 2 inches.
Frame 8: Looks empty but bees hanging

Bottom Box
Frame 1: This was the empty frame from the top box. Now has two new lobes of comb covering approximately 1/6 of the frame.
Frame 2: Full frame of comb with 1/3 to 1/2 full of honey.
Frame 3: Full frame of brood comb. Looks empty but may be full of eggs. Some capped honey in the corners. Queen present left edge of side B towards the center.
Frame 4: Capped brood, maybe 1/2 full.
Frame 5: Full frame of brood comb. Looks empty but again maybe I'm missing the eggs.
Frame 6: Full frame of tight capped brood on both sides.
Frame 7: Looks like an empty frame of brood comb with 1/4 uncapped honey.
Frame 8: Mainly uncapped honey with the strange brown stuff in many cells

Top Box Photographs:
Frame 2:


Frame 3:
Frame 4:
Frame 5:
Frame 6:
Frame 7:
Frame 8:

Bottom Box Photographs:
Frame 1:
Frame 2:
Frame 3:
Frame 4:
Frame 5:
Frame 6:
Frame 7:
Frame 8: