The main hive has a laying queen. I only saw about 2 frames of brood, eggs and larvae, but at least she has started. The other boxes have some nectar and pollen, but overall the hive is light. I will probably add a couple of frames of brood pulled from the first split to boost the population.
The first split is doing well and filling boxes. About 4 or 5 frames of brood, larvae and eggs in the bottom box. 3 or 4 frames in the middle box. Honey and pollen on the sides and in the top box. Not quite full but getting there. I will probably pull a couple of frames of honey to add to the second split to help it fill out stores for the winter.
The second split is doing reasonably well building population, but is still behind the first split. About 4 frames of brood in the bottom box and 3 in the middle box. The top box is only about half full. Some more frame manipulation should even up the 2 splits and boost the main hive.
I'm not sure I will get much of anything from the main hive. I think next time I will try to pull a few frames of capped honey and see if I can reduce the number of boxes to 3. I think this hive may have too much space right now, but there seemed to be lots of open nectar in various spots in the hive. I did see the queen in the main hive. She has many frames of drawn comb to choose from, but maybe not enough nurse bees(?) I did not see the queen in either split although they are clearly queen-right.
I'll check back in another week and see if I can balance the hives more.
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