Well, these hives had 2.5 supers full of honey in summer, then 3-4 months later they barely had a few frames of honey left.
And...?... nothing at all unusual in extended dearths.
It is *why* bees store when they can. There were/are frames left, so no
panic. It is time to panic when you see every frame mined clean of caps
and cells carrying less than 50% of fill. That's 'close' to starvation
happening sometime soon.
In relation to your question feeding protein at that time is the absolute last
thing a b'keep would try on, it is the opposite that is required so as to
preserve stores for a viable number of bees. As soon as a dearth shows
endurance you reduce numbers even further than what bees already would
have begun to do.
Help?
Bill