I inspected my hives yesterday. The weather was good for working with bees. There was a lot of pollen and nectar coming into the hive. Overall, the bees were very docile, and I was not stung. In fact, they were so calm I could have worked them without a veil.
I did not notice the queen in 'A' hive, but I saw her last week, so I am not worried. In 'B' hive, I noted a lot of eggs and young larvae in the freshly drawn-out foundation, which means that the queen was there laying those eggs just a couple of days ago. In fact, 'B' hive is doing so well, and has drawn out so much of the new foundation that I gave them a week ago, that I will soon need to add the third deep hive body. I may do a brief mid-week inspection to check their progress.
Both hives had lots of pollen coming in, but B hive had the most foragers bringing in pollen. This is a very good sign, as pollen is primarily consumed by brood and very young bees. So when the bees are bringing in pollen, it means they are raising lots of new bees, a good indicator that the hive is healthy and flourishing.
In this picture of the entrance of B hive, you can see several foragers returning with loaded pollen baskets. I count five of them:
In this picture, I am uncapping a couple of worker cells. My cousin is with me, and I wanted to show her the developing pupae in their cells. If you look in the top left of the frame, you can see reflections from the surface of uncapped honey in the cells. This frame was loaded with honey, pollen, and brood, and was very heavy. I had to rest the frame on the hive body in order to free my other hand.
Both hives appear to be doing very well, and I am very excited. I think I may get more honey this year than I initially expected. I will be producing honey in the comb, the only way to eat it, in my opinion.