It had been weeks since I went into the hive. Clarence needed to cut the grass in front and he had been stung a while back. I also had left an entrance reducer in on the swarm hive (No need to leave a colony vulnerable because the entrance is too big when they are weak.) But, the hive had grown strong and it was time to pull the entrance reducer out. I also wanted to see how crowded things had become. So I gave Clarence the spare veil and we went in.
The bees were indeed starting to show signs of being crowded. In both hives, the top set of frames were drawn and loaded with honey. I went back today and added extra boxes to each. None of the frames are drawn and I don't expect them to change much between now and when we harvest. But they have more room.
I noticed one thing that was very odd. The swarm hive had a lot of bees hanging around the back. At first, I was just totally confused, wondering if my smoking them had driven them back there. Then I realized that the brood box doesn't sit quite right on the bottom board. There is a small crack -- a different kind of split if you will -- that runs around the back corner. The photo below is actually of the right rear (facing from the front) corner of the hive. The crack is very slim, but it is enough to let them out and they seem to really like hanging out there. I'm not sure how this happened exactly, or how I will fix it, or if I will fix it. The hive seems happy otherwise.
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