Upon inspecting the lower deep, I found that some of the partially drawn frames that I moved down there (to try to get the bees to move up to the top deep) are still only partially drawn. Some of the older frames that were fully drawn are empty and abandoned. Overall, it looks like there is only activity on 3 or 4 of the 10 frames in the bottom deep.
The top deep is much more active, but the bees were drawing the extra thick comb again, but only on one frame. That was the frame were I found Queenie (thank goodness, because I did not see very many eggs anywhere - there was a lot of honey and a lot of capped brood and a lot of empty cells). Here is a picture of the very strange frame (Queenie is on the bottom right, the thick comb is on the right and along the whole top of the frame):
Unfortunately since the bees aren't filling up the hive space they have now, I cannot put on a honey super. This means that I am not going to get any honey this year :( I think this is probably a combination of me inspecting them too often and them not getting enough sun. Maybe I'll try moving them next year.
Also, Brandon helped me out a lot with this inspection. He loosened the frames and separated them while I just picked them up and looked at them. The inspection went much more quickly this time, I got through the whole bottom deep and all but two frames in the top (then the bees started buzzing my veil again, I am trying to be very gentle, but they seem a bit grouchy when I leave the hive open too long).
You're a madman.
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