Questions about my girls and their housekeeping habits . .

[tereads]

Okay, here's the situation:   I have two hives both started late spring with packages.  Hive number one wouldn't move up to supers, but has an upper deep filled with the most beautiful frames of capped honey and pollen, all white and golden.   However, the bottom board is simply covered with black gunk which they never seem to clean up.  They are busy all day and seem to be bringing in plenty of pollen and nectar and have no sign of diseases or anything else except that they wouldn't move up to a super so I gave up and took it off after a couple of weeks and decided that as long as they have adequate stores for the winter (upstate NY, horticultural zone 5) that was fine with me.  The black gunk is what I'm wondering about.
Hive two is so populous that there are constantly bees hanging out on the porch with nothing to do and they continue to build brace comb between the top and bottom bars of the supers, which I continue to remove.  They have filled one shallow super and are well on their way to filling a second.  However, while the brood pattern is good and there are no signs of disease, the comb and cappings are quite dark (dark yellow to brown) and look entirely different than the first hive in terms of color.  The bottom board is clean as a whistle, unlike the other hive.  When I open it up (mid-day on fine days) there are so many bees it's almost scary.  Both these hives had some problems early in the season with chalkbrood (I think that's what it was) but that's all cleared up long since.
So, my question is do I have anything to worry about (the black gunk, the dark comb and cappings . . .)?
Any comments or advice would be appreciated.  
I just love watching them work.  Sitting by the hives watching the comings and goings is a relaxation exercise all by itself.
Thanks,
TE

[Brian D. Bray]

Clean out the dark gunk.  Anything in the hive that will harbor parasites, hold moisture, or possible cause obstruction ot the entrance can be fatal to the bees over winter.  
I have 2 daughters--one just sets stuff down and doesn't pickup often and the other is a neat freak.  Women, like bees, can very in their housekeeping traits.  Of the 2 hives the neat one is the more likely to winter successfully.  
The dark gunk maybe due to the bees over-refining the nectar or gathering from some place where there was a lot of soot, like an old forest fire site.