I’m now a second year beekeeper! One of my two hives survived, and I’m getting ready for a new nuc. I am in Seattle, where it can get cold at times, so I left two brood boxes on in hopes that there would be plenty of honey. I treated both for mites in late August / early September, and both hives were strong after the treatment.
I fed both hives a lot of sugar water with Hive Alive in the fall. The two hives went through three 50-pound bags of sugar. The hive that died is totally full of sugar water turned into “honey” storage. The hive that’s alive is still really heavy and has a lot of stored sugar water left.
I want to give both hives room to grow this spring. Should I throw away the frames of capped sugar water and let them start over? Should I keep some and throw some away?
(The hive that died appeared to have lost its queen. The bees were huddled in the center together, but there were also a lot of bees that left the hive and died on a cold, rainy day. One day I went to check on them, and there were 500+ dead bees right in front of the hive, and when I went into the hive, the bottom board was covered in dead bees, and there was a cluster in the middle. My wife cried when she saw them)
Congrats on getting your colony through the winter, @jeffSEA! Sounds like you did well with keeping them fed I’m sorry about your other one though, and can totally relate your wife when I’ve found scenes like that
Just wanted to make sure I know what you’re saying, because usually ‘left on’ refers to a super. I’m guessing you are talking about both colonies being in two deep brood boxes. But correct me if I’m wrong!
Was this the only treatment, and what did you use? I’m asking because mite management is more effective when it starts earlier and involves monitoring to make sure the treatment was adequate & well-timed. Also, some treatments are known to be harsher. I don’t mean to be critical at all, just being curious for the sake of helping you connect the dots as you see them. The pile of 500 or so bees you saw on the ground probably went/were put outside because they were already dead or dying.
I wouldn’t toss frames of drawn comb with stores unless they were seriously infested or very moldy. But if I’m right that you’re working with double deep brood boxes and the second ones are full of these frames, then you will want to take several of these out and store away from pests after freezing for 24-48 hours. Or leave them in the freezer if you have room. When you inspect both boxes, you will probably see that brood is being raised in the lower center of the top brood box. Leave those frames in and remove only those that are solid sugar-honey. When you put new frames in you should take note of the colony’s strength and the current and near-future weather/temps. You can checkerboard new frames with existing brood frames provided they’re already in great shape and a good nectar flow is on that they can access without too much bad flying weather. If things don’t look so great then either wait to remove those frames - because they add insulation and (obviously) food, or only take out ones at either side so the brood nest is undisturbed.
The same goes for your nuc, if the weather is still pretty dicey when it arrives, you could add 1 sugar frame and just 2 blanks. Edit - assuming you have 8 frame equipment! If it’s 10, then adjust accordingly
Another thing to consider for your survivors is reversing hive bodies (brood boxes) at an appropriate time. Type that phrase into the search and you’ll see some interesting discussion. I run singles for the most part so I don’t have experience with it, but it is a useful strategy.
Another thing to keep in mind is that your survivor colony is more likely to swarm, so providing more room to grow could certainly involve doing a preemptive split. That’s another great way to use those extra sugar frames!
This is fantastic, thanks for all your help and advice!
Mite treatment: I used Formic pro and then apivar, in succession. There were a lot of mites after the first treatment, and I wanted to really prepare the hives (a friend suggested doing another). The hives were both in really good shape after the treatments.
Left on: yes, two brood boxes per hive, I didn’t scale down to 1 for the winter. There seems to be disagreement online about what the right call is there.
You bet! I don’t use formic or Apivar myself, but I remember coming across info about how formic can cause queens to die if used in hot weather. Not sure if that was the issue and I didn’t want to go by just my own (faulty) memory so I found this for you in case you wanted more detail:
I’ve learned a lot about varroa treatments from Randy Oliver’s site, highly recommend if you don’t already know about it.
Re: how many brood boxes, it comes down to your climate and colony strength at the end of the season. I’ve found that 1 deep + 1 medium is a winning combo (just to throw another variation in to the disagreement ). Once in awhile I end up deciding to remove the medium come fall, based on population.
I’m sorry about your other one though, and can totally relate your wife when I’ve found scenes like that 
