Back from Ireland

A small stream along a backroad

After a 2 week visit to Ireland, I took a look into hive #1 and 2.

Frame from #1 with capped honey and nectar

I had expected almost all the bees from #1 to be gone and the remaining honey being robbed as the hive has been queenless for over 6 weeks.  Removing the lid, I was surprised to see lots of bees at the hole in the vivaldi box.  There were still a lot of bees in the hive and they were still bringing in nectar.  There was no sign of robbing, either.  All the bees working there are close to 6 weeks old, so I expect them to drop off soon.
#2 is looking very strong.  I did not check the frames in the supers.  The top box did not feel very heavy.  In the top brood box there were several frames with capped honey and some pollen.  There was also a bit of brood at the bottom of a couple of outside frames.  There was a lot of brood in the bottom box.  I did not spot the queen.  I was looking for eggs and noticed a large number of cells that had a glistening white substance in them.  I suspected this might be royal jelly.  You may remember that all larvae are fed royal jelly for their first three days.  I went online and found pictures that confirmed my suspicions.This is pretty much what my frame looked like.
There were still a lot of drones concentrated on the outer frames.
In the next couple of days I'll get into #3.