Normally when I remove full supers I tip them on their side and wait for
bees to leave and then I take the full supers to area where i do my
exr\tracting. Generally this is uneventful. This weekend however it was
not so easy. The removed supers were quickly set upon by hordes of bees
from other colonies. I had to put them under shelter before all the honey
was stolen. I took advantage of this by putting out a super of old honey I
had from last year that didn't get extracted for some reason. When I
checked it tonight it was completely empty. I noticed a lot of wax powder
and dead bees around the super.
 
I assume the wax debris is from removed cappings. I'm puzzeled by the
dead bees. Could this be a result of inter-colony fighting? I have a
couple of other supers with old honey I would like to recycle by the
above method and then extract. Has anybody else tried this? Am I doing
anything wrong here?
 
Thanks for your help.
 
Regards, Doug Henry, Lockport, Manitoba.