what to do with dead colony's brood and super

[eatmorebeans]

I have 3 colonies, all on Nationals. One colony has had it, swarmed at beginning of April, never got going again even though it left a couple of QCs. Very few bees left. It still has a full super on it, the one it over-wintered with. I now am wondering what to do with the brood and super boxes.

I'm thinking that the brood box (whaich has a fair amount of store in it) I will keep in case i either need to AS or I get a swarm.

The super is full of what all the bees collected last autumn, i.e. syrup and Ivy nectar. Mainly syrup I suspect. (do bees store syrup or turn it in to syrup honey?). either way it's not what I would want to eat or sell. I'm thinking either extract what I can and save it for feed, of store the super as is and use it for over-wintering.

Any suggestions, pearls of wisdom?

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

You can keep it to feed it back to your remaining colonies when required - bruise the cappings on the frames and put them in a super above the crownboard, the bees should clean up the frames and take the stores down below.

May be worth investigating a bit further though, the ivy will be rock hard so I'm guessing they may not bother with it unless starving.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

It might also be worth investigating a bit more why the colony dwindled.
If disease played a part in it then you don't want to be feeding it back to your other bees.