I went back yesterday to get the remaining 3 colonies out of the house. Very wet ground. Ended up getting stuck and having to be pulled out at 9:00 last night. But anyway...I decided to start on the colony facing the highway on the corner. Noticed there were fewer bees at the entrance than before. When I tore the bottom boards off, dead bees fell out. The bottom of the wall space was covered in dead bees. Some idiot must have sprayed them! I really really really hate that. I figure some teen or drunk saw the bees from the hwy and decided to have a little fun. I think they got more than they bargained for, because the other two hives were not sprayed. No sign of dead bees in the bottom of the the others. So the idiot probably sprayed in the first one and got lit up. These bees have been pretty hot each time I've been over there.
Anyway, on the other side of the corner, that colony was fine. But, they had oriented their comb from stud to stud in the wall instead of from inner wall to outer wall, like the other colonies. When I took off the outer wall, I was looking at one side of a comb instead of the ends of several combs. Lots of brood and eggs and bees. And a new experience for me. When I got near the top of the comb I saw lots of good capped honey. When I cut the comb out, the other side had capped worker brood. Crazy. I got to keep very little honey. Nearly all of it went in the frames. Not too messy, considering. I never saw the queen, but she may have been vacced. I'll check for her in a few days.
The smaller colony toward the back of the house was, as I suspected, a swarm from this season. Not a primary swarm. The comb was pretty soft. Most of the honey was uncapped, so will be fed back. I did get enough brood comb for four frames, and a good number of bees in the bucket. When I dumped them in, I could smell the queen's lemon scent.
All done with the house, I think...I put 3 hives in my yard and 1 in a friends yard, from this house. Next???