What the heck is that? Or that? A look inside the hive

The hives are looking good from the outside. Bees flying in with pollen bags full. The first hive (now called '14) has a honey super on. The other hive (now called '15) is settling in to its new home. time to take a look inside.

We donned our suits, lit the smoker, gathered our tools and went inside the hives for a closer look over Memorial Day weekend. The weather was just right...sunny, not too hot or muggy....and the bees looked very busy.

Right away we found some beautiful capped honey in '14. The honey is light in color because of whatever windflower nectar the girls brought home. Now we're really looking forward to harvesting!

Looking beautiful!

Then we began to see some other things that we didn't recognize. We did see capped and uncapped larvae, brood, worker bees, drone bees and many drone brood. We didn't see eggs while in the hive but we think we see eggs in the pictures. It is hard to tell the difference between an egg and light glare.

Drone brood on the left, brood, larvae and maybe eggs on the right.

Other things we saw and can't identify-

This looks like a bunch of drone cells stuck together

Here is a queen cell and the arrow shows a drone cell

These lumps are on the bottom of a frame and seem to include drone cells and queen cells

Two more queen cells

We've been watching the '14 closely for any kind of weird behavior. The hive has been a bit grumpy with groups spending time outside on the landing board and there are a lot of drones around. Just a couple of days ago, everything changed. The hive seems calmer and more in control of itself. We didn't see a swarm so we don't know if there was one or if there was a queen death and replacement or what happened. Any thoughts from more experienced beeks would be greatly appreciated.

I'm wishing I could give my Dad a call and get some old time beek advice!