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Also, if possible, observe how the bees are treating the queen before letting her loose (or allowing the bees to attack her).

Definitely not too late for supercedure. As long as the new queen gets mated satisfactorily, there need be no change in laying rate - as dictated by the workers. If the queen does not get mated the old queen may well still be there next spring. She may still be there next spring, anyway...

Read the post on laying workers. I expect the OP likely got the idea for this thread from there.:)

because all the condensation is going to happen on the walls at a nice warm temperature where the bees can use it, That, IMO, is some fairly dim thinking - if any at all. Where are the bees when this water is streaming down the walls? That’s right, tightly clustered well away from the walls...

My timber 14 x 12s all had 50mm of insulation under the roof and most were insulated on the recessed ends with 25mm polystyrene. I previously filled a shallow with a polystyrene block but gave up with that idea after a couple of seasons.

A strong colony with no queen may need two or three frames of eggs adding before the laying workers are suppressed. Things like laying pattern have not been addressed by the OP. If the colonies are to be saved, the laying workers need to be suppressed and preferably a laying queen added. I...

After my first couple of seasons, I steadily converted my hives to 14 x 12. First off I weighed each hive by lifting it gently with a spring balance (later with a digi-suitcase scale) from a screw in each side of the hive floor. After a couple of seasons I was simply used to the weight of a...

I would say zilch, or close to it is the target. There will always be a few casualties - snow flights, cleansing flights, late foraging, etc. But there should not be a great carpet of bees on the hive floor, come springtime. 10% would be quite good, I would suggest. Varroa-free winter bees...

I have never bought a polyhive without being sure the density is adequate. Buy cheap, buy twice.

Are you confident he is not targeting your bees?

Not really true. More like expecting human interference to be perfect. In nature bees usually set up home some distance away from the parent colony, not in the confines of an apiary along with umpteen other colonies.

Try dribbling a little of their honey from the feeder. That should get them up there even better/faster than plain sugar syrup.

I expect most 9 frame radial extractors would easily accommodate commercial deeps if tangential screens are fitted. Only three frames at a time, so slower than using the extractor radially. That is how I extract 14 x 12 frames.

Wasps do not bother honey bees a great deal until after they begin to sugar-feed. Remember that traps are there to attract wasps. Unnecessarily attracting wasps to your apiary is certainly not the most clever of ideas.

You can edit your (recent) posts. I(have to) doit all the time.:) Edited to add that it seems you may have taken off a considerable amount of nectar, when you removed those supers.

I wouldn’t. Well, certainly not before thinking about the options! I’m like JBM, I think about it first. First off, decide how you wish to over-winter them. If on extra-deeps (14 x 12) they are very unlikely to need more than the brood box filled with stores. If on deeps, they may only...

Read my post just above your last one? KISS Principle, if you can work it out.

Doesn’t that depend on the beekeeper and his/her hive arrangement? The thinking beekeeper with local hives might just invest in a few extra queen excluders and come bain a couple of days time, if they were not good at finding the queen. Boxes separated would soon show which box has the queen -...

One other thing to consider, if extracting radially - deeps are more likely to ‘blow’ than shallows. Extra-deeps are good because they are extracted tangentially.

Shallows, deeps or extra-deeps can be used as brood boxes or supers (honey boxes). Done it, at times, since starting beekeeping. Perhaps going to the Rose method with one size of box (between deep and shallow) might be a option? Shallows as supers is good later in the season - when a deep...