May 31, 2015: solutions kinda work

We are now moving into a season of rain and heat. It looks like the flow is back on in my area, although it has not been so for the rest of our town. I live on the northeast and it seems everything is a week or two later out here. I won't see the crepe myrtles blooming for another 3 weeks, maybe a month, and yet they're already in bloom in town.
The South hive is busy and full of quiet bees. They have already filled half of a honey super.The South hive had quite a few small hive beetles in the top. I added beetle blasters with a mix of half apple cider vinegar and half oil in order to drown the beetles once the bees trap them. 
I was concerned that the North hive with two deep brood boxes was ailing. When I opened it up it seems to be doing just fine. It had no small hive beetles in evidence.
I went ahead and added a queen excluder and a honey super to the North - today. I think it's ready.
In search of a solution of where to store all of this equipment, I had pitched a tent and put down an additional layer of plastic on the floor. It seemed to work for quite a while, but when I went into it today I noticed all of these black tubes on the ground particularly around the area of the comb. As I looked closer I saw two things. One was black tubes all over the white plastic floor, and ants had figured a way to get in. Here is one frame which I had  salvage, frozen, cleaned, and storage. That's why I didn't think it would have been wax moths. I had no idea what these tubes work. See the picture.
I now believe they are earthworm that had crawled up into the tent and reproduced during the heavy rains. They then dried when the heat  came on, and ants came to enjoy the feast.

May 16 Check in

Both hives seem to be doing well. Both had capped brood, but it was not as plentiful as I would have hoped. I didn't see any pest. Remember, I had to start feeding again about 10 days ago because the flow has stopped. The larger hive (south) is storing, the smaller hive (north) has very little stores. Both are bringing in pollen. I'm guessing the queen slowed down and she's only now starting to crank up her laying again.
On the north hive with two brood boxes, the lower box had no brood in it at all. This was the box that I thought might have lost its queen or have had a virgin queen trapped in the upper chamber. Since there is now no queen excluder between the boxes, and it is been two weeks, and  I see capped brood, I'm confident this hive will develop well.
I weighed the North hive. It came in at 51. 6 pounds. Usually I wait until a hive with a brood box and honey super weighs in over 75 pounds before I pull the honey super.
I could not weigh the south hive - because it was so much taller and the scale would not take it.
I'll check in with them again in two weeks.

Flow? No flow.

The flow which usually starts in March and continues well into April, for most people in this area, has dried up for the time being. It seems that the high winds, cool temperatures and weeks and weeks of rain has ended it early. Many of us with red clover had noticed that it was gone much earlier than it should have been. I stop feeding on March 21st and begin feeding again May 4th. I know my DS are feeding on the guest room, but I don't know what else there foraging on. When I went into the house yesterday they had almost no stores.

Lessons learned

The most important thing I learned this time around, since obviously I haven't learned it on previous occasions is: Don't experiment unless you're committed to having a time to follow it through.
Using the camping tent to store the honey bee equipment and woodworks et cetera has worked out pretty well. It has been a rainy, rainy six weeks and only a little bit got inside. All of the equipment seems to have weathered last fall and winter just fine.
What I didn't learn. When I put on the queen excluder as a way of separating hives and creating a nuc, I needed to be able to commit to checking up on a weekly basis.
It's been a whole month. It looked like things were okay. But we all know from the outside looking in there's no way to know what's going on.
So, today I went into the hive. Here's what I find
1) in the split that I have created earlier this season where I had a shallower box on the bottom and a brood box on top, I simply when in and reverse them. They were full of eggs and bees and capped brood and everything looked great. I put on a queen excluder and a honey super even though not all frames were totally built out on the exterior.
Feeling pretty proud of myself even though I haven't seen any swans this year and I have three swarm traps setup, I thought I was doing pretty good. I opened the hive that has two brood boxes and had seems very active. But, I had notice to things: the first was that there was very little pollen being brought in, that's evidence that there is no laying queen. The other thing I noticed was bee bodies, little bits to be bodies down on the bottom of the box. I use screen bottom so I can see what was going through.
When I open the hives it was apparent that in the top brood box there had been 2 or 3 queen cells that opened up. I wwa sure I saw what looks like a virgin queen. There was no evidence she was laying or that workers were storing honey in that entire brood box.
I remove the excluder and closed everything up. I then went to the other hive and took a frame of capped brood and hopefully some eggs and put it in the top brood chamber. If the bee I saw was a Virgin Queen, and if she is able to successfully mate in the coming week, and if she comes back and begins laying--- maybe, just maybe, this hive will be saved.
What did I learn: that you have to check it. I think my experiment could have worked if I had stayed on top of it and had taken the top box off with the Virgin Queen and let it become a nuk. Waiting a month meant there were bees that died, possibly drones that were caught in the upper chamber between the excluder and unable to get out, or perhaps they were other Queens.
It's been an interesting time.