newbee Questions

[bulldog]

ok, so i (or rather my bees) have survived their first winter. while doing an inspection i noticed a few things. i have a ttbh in which i put dry sugar before closing them for winter. there was some mold present and one frame in particular ( the last frame in the hive ) looked as if the cells were filled with water ?, i'm guessing condensation and maybe a ventilation issue? also, there was a small amount of capped brood, but i didn't notice any eggs or larva. but my eyes are bad so i can usually only see larva when they are big enough to fill the bottom of a cell. but it looked like a lot of open cells on most frames. is this normal for this time of year ? shouldn't the queen have resumed laying by now ? there was significant capped honey around the edges of the frames and a couple of almost full frames as well. much more than i would expect, but what do i know? could they have been making honey out of the dry sugar, which is no longer dry but a very thick syrup? also, the two full frames of pollen going into winter are gone, but they were bringing it in as i was inspecting. ( also i saw my first bee dancing, do they do their dance just for pollen because her pollen sacks were loaded ?) maybe they need more pollen coming in for the queen to resume laying ? sorry, i know i'm rambling so i'll end it here. as always, any insight or advice is greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.

[indypartridge]

... there was some mold present and one frame in particular ( the last frame in the hive ) looked as if the cells were filled with water ?, i'm guessing condensation and maybe a ventilation issue?

Might have been nectar, not water. Mold is not terribly unusual, the bees should clean things up once their numbers increase.

...there was a small amount of capped brood, but i didn't notice any eggs or larva. ... looked like a lot of open cells on most frames. is this normal for this time of year ?

Sometimes, especially if the weather has fluctuated from warm-to-cold, instead of kicking into high gear the queen may be laying a little, waiting  a little...

could they have been making honey out of the dry sugar, which is no longer dry but a very thick syrup?

Sort of... they will store it the same as honey, and you could extract it, but since it's from sugar and not nectar it's basically adulterated honey.

maybe they need more pollen coming in for the queen to resume laying ?=

Pollen is essential to rearing brood. If there's not much pollen coming in, the queen usually won't be laying much. That's why some beekeepers add pollen patties early in spring to kickstart the queen.