I left my honey super stores on the aid the new hives I started this year.
However, I did not know to remove the queen excluders. Unfortunately we had some moderately cold weather which killed two of my hives.
I suppose that only reason for lost oh hives is another than exluder.
When you have had exluder all the time, it has restricted brood area. When bee make winterball it is about size of brood area of late summer.
So basicly you have had too much roo for winter. That one box, where brood were, it is enough for winter.
So they put honey uppstairs, and perhaps they had some brood before winter in downstairs. They had consumed honey from downstairs and when cold weather came, they were not able to pick up from uppstairs.
And finally, if bees have raised to uppstairs, queen is not able to follow the ball. They surely forget the queen, because it is queen's job to follow bees.
SUMMARY
* too much room at autumn and for winter
* you should check food stores before winter and give sugar if they need more
* mistakes teach effectively
* if someone does not make mistakes, he learns nothing.