Question from a second year newbee.

Today I went out to requeen 2 hives that had 2 year old queens.  Hive #1
had an enormous amount of bees despite being split hard this spring and
using foundation in the upper deep.  I even think it may have swarmed
after the split.  Lots of brood and several frames of honey in the upper
deep.  It was doing so well I couldn't bring myself to replace the queen
and instead used several frames to make up a nuc for the queen I had in
hand.

Hive #2 was not split this spring and seemed to come through the winter
ok.  When I went in to find the queen I pulled out frame after frame
filled with capped brood.  The upper deep had about 80% capped and maybe
20% uncapped brood easily equal to 9 frames of brood but no honey.  When I
went in to the lower deep more capped brood and again very little honey.
There was a frame or more of pollen.  This hive had plenty of bees
present.  I went ahead and replaced the queen despite all of the capped
brood.  Hopefully she will take with all the bees present.  I will wait a
little later in the year to requeen in the future.

My question is, should I be concerned with the lack of stores in hive #2?
Golden rod is in full blume and our killing frost date is around the
middle of October.  The bees are also hitting the over ripe pears that we
have in abundance.  This summer was wet and local honey yields are very
low.

My wife continually tells me to leave them alone, they know what they are
doing:)

Glenn

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