Please tell me what is up!

[Highlander]

I inspected the my hives today and this is what I found. Hive #1






















This is Hive #2, they seem to be doing fine.























Thanks for looking!

[Kathyp]

laying workers.  look at 3 and the last picture for that 1st hive.  you can see the eggs laid on the sides of the cells.

how big (boxes full) is your second hive?

[Highlander]

Thanks KathyP, thats what I suspected. Hive #2 has had at least one round of new bees but is still only one hive large hive box with about 6 frames done or mostly done.  Question now is would it be a good idea to combine the two and add a second hive box? I saw no queen cells in hive #1.

[iddee]

I agree with Kathy and will add, The 2nd hive is also queenless. It should have 2 or 3 frames of capped brood.

[Highlander]

Iddee, Hive #2 should have had a good sized emerging of brood within the last couple of days, and I think I saw the queen (although I am new) Also, hive #2 for the first time did not swarm me when I opened it up.  They have lots of nectar and seem organized and busy.  For what it is worth.  Should I consider combining the two hives?  I aw no queen cells on hive #1.

Thanks!

[Joe D]

Highlander, I would agree with Kathy and iddee, you have laying workers.  Looks like all the brood in hive one is drone, and didn't see any brood in hive two.  Last year there was a swarm I caught and put in a hive, two weeks or so latter I checked and the workers were as busy as bees , but there was no brood.  Got a new queen the next day and then bees everywhere.  Good luck to you and your bees




Joe

[iddee]

They may have had one hatching, but the queen laid every day until she was gone. Once you have capped brood, you have capped brood as long as you have a queen. She doesn't stop and go in the spring and summer.

[10framer]

i shook out two hives this week because of the same thing.  they were early splits that failed.
i added open brood for 4 weeks then added caped queen cells to one after i stopped seeing eggs but they got cut down.  i got tired of dragging my other hives down trying to salvage those two. 
if you only have the two hives you need to decide if you want to steel resources from one to maybe salvage the other.  if it were me i'd probably shake them out away from the location then combine equipment and hope to make a split early in the flow. 
this has been a bad spring for everyone.  i made a couple of splits earlier this week and it's going to get back down in the 40's again tonight and tomorrow. 
this is really unseasonable for us.  i expect to find a little chilled brood in some of the hives again this week.

[Michael Bush]

The pictures take me to another page but they don't display...  From the small ones, I can't tell the shape of the caps.  (drones are kix shaped).  The brood pattern is scattered (not a good sign).  Assuming drone caps and multiple eggs, I would assume laying workers...

http://bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm