as you see; this is one group of hives- only one occupied hive on it. they built out very nicely and I stopped feeding midweek and put in foundationless honey frames (3/4 starter strips from wax foundation) I built the honey super and you can see a gap in it - I made a measurement error and figured if they don't use it for an entrance I'll cut a strip of wood and glue it in. the queen excluder is sitting sideways - something I read about the queen generally stays in the core of the hive and the placement allows the workers to climb up more easily at the edges. anyway - it's a full deep (I'd add another deep but I'm out of everything and can't spend on another 10 frames right now.) still saving large cans to place for an oil trap to keep the ants away.
On the left side is a topbar hive I threw together a few weeks ago.
my question is this - I see the bees on the porch hanging out washboarding pretty much all day long; it's cloudy in the pic but that doesnt really matter - even in full sun they're hanging out on the porch washboarding. - is this normal behavior or is it a sign of something?
Edit: pic doesn't seem to have posted, the description may be sufficient. (I'll try again)