>I checked my hive today and there were hundreds of bees on the outside wall >near the entrance. The frames are relatively full in the main chamber with >lots of brood, but the beens seem to refuse to go through the queen >excluder to the honey super. This can be a simple case of no nectar flow and warm weather. If the brood chamber is congested you have a greater chance of swarming. You can add a second brood chamber to reduce the chances of swarming. Without a need the bees will be reluctant to move away from the brood and queen into a super. If there is no flow on they will tend to not want to move up. If there is only foundation in the honey supers it will take a strong flow to get them to draw it out into comb. As for the mites seeing one just does not indicate a need for treatment, yet. I would suggest that you test for mite populations using the "sugar roll" method or sticky board.