Hive #2 has larva!

Yes, it is true.  There are larvae in #2.
I went into the hive yesterday with some trepidation, fearing what I would find, or more to the point, what I would not find.
The super did not have significantly more honey so no need for a second super.

This is what I saw after taking off the super.  If a hive is strong, there will be a large number of bees on top of the frames like in the small photo.

I was pleased to see that these were all workers, no drones.


When I looked at the individual frames, my hopes took a dip.  Lots of drones and empty brood cells,

The old supersedure cells not yet completely broken down

Capped honey, drones and some workers

Empty brood cells.  Also note the paucity of workers

Frame completely covered with drones.  Maybe one worker

Then I went into the bottom box.  Still a lot of drones but there were larvae.  They looked 4-5 days old.  I did not see any eggs.  I looked unsuccessfully for the queen, but I did see this:

This is a chewed open queen cell.  It is at the top of the frame, the site of supersedure cells.  What does this mean?  A good question.  Maybe the queen from the first group did not make it and the workers made another one (or more).  This queen is the one who is laying.  In any case, it looks like #2 is queen right.  I do worry (of course) that there may not be enough nurse bees and considered shaking in some from another hive.
There was no wax drawn on the drone frame.  Later I tried melting wax on the frame with the hair dryer.  The wax melted but the small pieces just blew away.  I then melted wax in a double boiler using a can.  Painting the wax on did not work too well so I poured it on and spread it with a brush.  The result: