Not much progress in the honey supers since I added one to Hive 1 and rearranged the frames in Hive 2. They've just started to draw the comb on the new frames I added, so I don't expect a lot more honey to build up. 'Tis a shame. I was a bit worried that Hive 1 hadn't made as much progress prepping their new frames, so I took the top super and swapped it with the second from top. That should cause more bees to hang out in there and start working the comb out into cells they can store honey in.
I also took advantage of the fact that I was all suited up to flip the bottom board on Hive 1. It has two sides, one is a bit shorter than the other. Funny thing, though, while I was in there, I found some mouse or rat poop in the back of the hive (see picture below). Man, that's one bold rat! I checked the frames around it and they didn't seem to be touched, so I figure the rat came in looking for a snack, woke the girls and got...well, please excuse the pun, scared shitless. Funny, the turds were encased in propolis, a waxy substance they use to seal off holes and the like. I've read that occasionally a field mouse with wander into a hive, die from the girls' ministrations and the girls will mummify the corpse in propolis. Spooky.
Finaly bonus picture. This is a frame of honey I pulled to check how things were doing. See how the honey changes color as the season progresses? Cool.
Here is a simple, non-invasive way to find out how the hive is doing: Knock on it. Put your ear to the side, and give it a sharp knock with your knuckles. Bees that are happy and healthy will give a good quick BUUUZZzzzzz, bees that are short on food (spring), without a queen, or otherwise in serious distress will BUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZUUZZZZZZZZUUUZZZ. Given the limited number of things that go wrong, you can usually guess what is up, and do a quick intervention to help out. In my experience, not intervening unless they need help was the best way to maximize my honey yield. Note, this didn’t help to identify pre-swarm preparations.