Should I do this? Or Should I not?

[spafmagic]

So, a little background here...

     I'm living in zone 7b I believe, have only 1 hive, and February is when things start to warm up. It's when Red Maple starts to bloom along with my mother's peach tree, but it's a tricky month too. Last year it got into the 70's and got my VERY first hive (that I got in May of 2018) working in the first week... THEN it dropped to below freezing and froze out my girls. I had to get a new package, giving them the old frames. Now the new colony is in a 2 deep setup, and the cluster looks strong.

     That being said, with the frames in the bottom box being a little over a year old, some of them from last I've seen are quite brown in color and drawn out somewhat irregular, I was contemplating on something. In anticipation of a failed winterization, I got 10 frames worth of BetterComb, by the company Better Bee. I would get a new bee package and provide them with 10 empty frames in the bottom deep, giving them the leftovers in the top box.

     For those that don't know what it is, it's molded wax honey combs made with wax of practically the same chemical makeup as actual bee's wax. They even have the same upward tilt in the cells as naturally drawn comb. (picture below)

     Now, SHOULD my bees live though the deceptive month of February, and go into spring unharmed... with how old, brown, and irregular the bottom box's frames are, I had contemplated pulling the top box off, setting the queen aside, pulling out all the old frames, putting in the BetterComb frames, releasing the queen into the bottom box, and putting an excluder down to get her to lay down there only, before putting the second box back on top. Would that cause any complications? Should I put the BetterComb in the top box?

Right-click and "view image" to see full size pic properly.

[van from Arkansas]

Mr. Spafmagic.  A question?  Is the photo of the waxed out frame just as received, or did the bees wax the frame out?

A note to consider.  Were you healthy bees killed by low temps as described OR very common cause is Varroa.  Varroa that weaken your winter bees last Fall which commonly causes collapse the colony in the early Spring/late winter.

Finally, consider if injury occurs to your queen from caging or whatever, there is no way to replace a queen this time of year.  I do not like manipulation of hives this time of year, although it can be done without incident.  Just being careful I am.
Enjoy the Holidays
Van

[spafmagic]

Mr. Van,

To the question about the photo... I ordered the BetterComb without frames to save some money, and put them into my own frames. Drilled some holes in the top, and sides using tooth pics as recommended by Better Bee, to hold them in place. The order was placed in October, so no bees have been on the comb yet.

To how my first colony died... it was treated for varroa mites before the fall flow with Formic Pro between the end of August and beginning of September. In December and January on fairly warm days (55+ degrees F. or so) they would go to work as normal. I can't see how mites would have been the cause. I think they took in too much nectar from the red maples and couldn't dehydrate it in time before the temps shot down to 19 degrees F. Less than a week after it warmed up again... ZERO activity. When I opened them up, quite a bit were head first inside a bunch of comb cells. A last ditch effort to stay warm.

And the advice about injury to the queen, I have a transparent queen "clam" catcher.  I wouldn't dream of closing it, until I saw the queen safely inside. =^_^= The only other thing I could think of is remembering what frame she's on, then shake her in... but... the questions in my original post still remain.

Thanks for your response so far.

[iddee]

I would keep the old wax, it being only a year old. I would let them build into a strong 2 deep hive and then add the betterbee wax. After seeing how they work it, I would decide what to do with the 3 boxes then.

[BeeMaster2]

Spafmagic,
If you put the queen in the bottom box with a queen excluder, you are just about guaranteed to kill the queen during the first chill because most of the honey will bee above the excluder and that will bee where the bees move to, leaving the queen to freeze below.
Never put a queen excluder on during cool months.
Jim Altmiller