Today when I went into the weak hive, I was pleasantly surprised. I saw a bee coming out of it's cell. I didn't want to take the time to see it come all the way out, it can take a while and I had other things I wanted to check out.
I'm still worried about the absence of growth in my weaker hive. Having a Queen that is laying is a good sign but it's very late in the season and I don't see any stored honey and very little stored pollen. The numbers in this hive have dwindled, largely in part because a new Queen takes between 4 and 6 weeks to start laying after she's born.
The laying pattern of the queen is still spotty, it should be more dense and uniform, but she's laying. None of what I saw were drone cells which means that I have a mated Queen and the workers aren't laying. In these two pictures you can see different larvae at several different stages of development. Since this hive is weaker than it should be, I'm constantly on the lookout for Hive Beetles and Wax Moths. I saw a moth today and squished it. I don't need those little buggers laying their eggs in my hives and devouring the wax comb that my bees have worked so hard to build.
The strong hive is doing really well. There was a lot of activity in the hive when I took off the inner cover which is shown below. The inner cover rests on top of a top feeder, where I've been putting sugar water for feeding. There were bees all over the top feeder, and they'd been busy drawing out comb in the super just under it.
These bees have a lot of capped and uncapped honey.
The laying patter is looking fairly uniform and appropriate. I saw a few drone cells but not many. I still haven't seen any signs of mites yet, which is a huge relief.
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