Hi all-

I've enjoyed the group's advice for over a year now, and need some help.

I am in upstate NY, and have only a single hive from last year.  Plenty of
stores for the
winter and looked great in the fall.

Medicated with Apistan about 4 weeks ago, everything looked "OK".  I had
left the cover
ajar to keep airflow and try to cut back on moisture.  Bees were only using
the top and
escape hole in the back of medium super on top of two deep supers as
entrance/exit.

So I thought I'd look.  The bees were not using the bottom entrance because
of all
of the dead bees in the bottom.  No sign of any disease (that I can tell.
Two to three
frames of apparently healthy brood and still plenty of honey.  Some black
mold that I
cleaned up just looked like moisture to me.  Still seems to be a reasonable
number
of bees.  I switched some frames around to get the brood centered in the
bottom deep super,
and moved some honey into it as well.  They were active, but calm.

There was a reddish waxy formation in some parts of the hive, which I
cleaned up too.  Darker than
propolis.  How do you think the hive is doing?  Thanks in advance.

Mark Baird