Hive #1 on a warm winter's day

Hive #1 has been looking very busy and I have been wondering what was going on inside.  Today it was warm enough to allow me to take a look.  

Busy front door

After taking off the lid, I was pleased to see a lot of bees inside the top cover.

Inside the Vivaldi box

In the super, there was only a bit of honey.

Under the Vivaldi box- top of super

 If a hive is really strong, all the frames would be covered with bees.  The top brood box had a small patch of brood at the bottom of the center frames and a few frames with capped honey and bee bread.  I guess the colony is not as strong as I thought since there was only a handful of bees on top of these frames.

Top of upper brood box

The bottom brood box had old,drawn comb, no brood or honey.  I didn't see the queen and assume she is in the top brood box.  At least I hope she's there still.

Looking down on bottom brood box

I've treated myself to a new tool, a frame puller, and used it today for the first time.  It really makes it a lot easier to remove a frame.

Using the frame puller

I received and put together the frames that I needed for the nucs.  I made them foundationless by putting the wedge sideways, using glue and a stapler.  As I pull brood and honey from the existing hives for splits, I'll replace them with the foundationless frames. 

Foundationless frame

Close up of my fine work

I used a maroon crayon

 I marked them with a crayon to keep track.

 A few weeks ago, bees were drinking water off the deck.  The water was there from my cleaning the beer fermenter.  I had long ago made a water station by the blackberries, but the bees never drank from there.  I made a new "pond" for them behind the new rose garden.  I haven't seen anyone drinking there yet.