Colony strength and a few other questions!

[Apis63]

Hi from Wisconsin!
     Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful summer and that your bees are doing well! Things are going good here, as far as I can tell. Just have a few questions for you. I have two hives in my back yard, both installed at the same time in late April. I have been doing inspections every week or two and everything looks normal. I haven't been able to spot the queen in either hive, which is kind of disappointing. One of my hives is noticeably more active than the other--has more drawn comb and more bees flying in and out.  Is this something I should be concerned about or is there something I can do to strengthen the second hive? Does this mean that the queen is perhaps a bit weaker? Three weeks ago I added a second deep super to both hives as both had 6-7 frames of drawn comb. I have been in to inspect once since then and they seem to be filling the frames in the second supers. Hive #2 is definitely not as busy as hive #1 though. Any advice you can give me about the difference in activity between the two hives would be appreciated.
    At what point do I begin adding medium supers? And then at what point in time can I begin extracting honey over and above what gets saved for overwintering. The general rule of thumb is one full super of honey for the bees and whatever is left is for me--is that right?  I am going to make it my mission to get my bees through the winter, so if I can't take any honey this year, I'm good with that. Just want to know when the extraction season begins.
     Thanks for sharing your wisdom! Don't know what I'd do without your helpful posts!
Warmly,
      Pam
     

[apisbees]

Leave the 2 brood boxes tor the bees, they will back fill the top brood box when the queen slows down in the fall. If they draw ind store honey in the brood supers the first year, Take it - it's yours.

[riverbee]

hi pam!

this is why is is always good to have two hives rather than one, so you can learn from and compare.  ultimately, and sometimes one hive will be stronger or other things that happen. it is not unusual that one hive is stronger than another (unless a problem) and it is not always necessary to find the queen, AS LONG AS, you see good laying patterns, tight solid brood/laying patterns, honey/pollen, eggs and larva. if you see these, it is not necessary to go digging in the hive to find her.  if you are seeing less than this, then there might be a problem with the queen, or something else going on.

as far as when to place the supers on, your second deep needs to have the foundation drawn out, in the 2nd deep the queen will lay (if drawn out), and the bees will store honey reserves on the outside frames. are you using 10 frame deeps?  the frames must all be drawn, the queen laying in the second deep, honey/pollen being filled and when you see they are getting to the point of running out of room, then add a medium super. 

as far as extraction and what get's saved for overwintering; i usually take all the supers off once a season, in late august/early september. sometimes in dearth the bees will utilize the honey packed away in these. i overwinter in deeps only.  i make sure the hives are heavy before going into winter months, either feeding back to them frames of honey with too high a moisture content; and also adding a shim and feeding fondant/winter patty if necessary. 

[pistolpete]

Your first year, I'd recommend feeding both hives until most of your comb is drawn out in both boxes.  Feeding will get everything done faster.   If you are actually worried about the one hive lagging, you can equalise them by moving two frames of capped brood from strong to weak.  But keep in mind that one strong colony will produce more honey than two weaker ones combined.  For wintering you want 10 to 12 deep frames full of honey.  If they have not filled any supers for you, In late August you can harvest a couple of frames from the deeps for personal use and feed them to top up the weight if needed.  They will not suffer for having a few frames of honey replaced with a few frames of syrup.

[apisbees]

Use caution when pulling frames out of the brood boxes if you have been feeding syrup the hole season. the honey you may be pulling may be made from mostly sugar syrup.