Warm enough to inspect

From srvbeekeeping.com

I had been waiting, as I am certain all of you have, for it to be warm enough to take a look into the hives.  I wanted to be sure that #1 was as strong as it seemed and that #2 was holding on.  I also wanted to see how many drones there were.  In order to make a new, fertile queen, there needs to be lots of potential mates. 
I went into #1 10 days ago.  The hive was strong with lots of bees in all three boxes.  There were 4 frames in the super with capped honey (and a bit of unripe honey).  Later, I emailed Kathy Niven asking if it would be okay to harvest now.  She assured me that the honey flow was starting (eucalyptus and plum trees blooming) and it would be okay to take the honey in the super.  The next day I placed my bee escape board, and the following day took the honey.  I extracted a bit over two quarts and put the stickies back on the hive.

Top of frames with honey and broken comb

The super was firmly attached to the frames of the top brood box by brace comb.  Breaking the comb exposed honey, so the bees got busy drinking it. I saw my queen in the top brood box.  There were at least 4 frames of brood mainly in the top box but also extending into the bottom box.  There were a few drones.
Yesterday, Karly and I went into #2.  There were no bees in the super and only a few in the top brood box.  
We spotted the queen in the bottom brood box and a small patch of brood on two frames.  The population seems stagnant.  That's a bit worrisome because the spring build up should be starting now.  I started feeding them to try to stimulate egg-laying.  If that doesn't work, I may take a couple of frames from #1.  I still want to make a split from #1, as well.  

I had noted a lot of crawlers with deformed wings.  Instead of doing a mite count, I decided to go ahead and treat.  I put Mite-away quick strips into #1 today and took out the entrance reducer.  #2 is not strong enough to treat, so we just have to hope.