During our last inspection, Dad and I noticed a ton of capped (and uncapped) brood, but the caps were different colors.  I drew this little diagram (MS Paint, bitches!) but waited to post it until we could verify the info as correct.

this is from a few weeks ago. it was a very educational inspection

The past couple of days, Dad has seen groups of bees hovering around the entrance and flying around the hive, seemingly at random.  His guess is that they’re new foragers doing an orientation flight, and I think he’s right.  They haven’t swarmed, and have built a completely new strip of comb.  They were coming back with giant, white-ish pollen baskets, so they all seem to be foraging in the same area, and are clearly happy staying at the hive if they’re bringing back so much food.  All awesome!