Local wintered nucs....that was the idea!
I just cleaned them up. I assume they just froze out, lots of stores right next to bees with thier heads in the cell...I mean right next to, as in the adjacent cell (sometimes). We have had some hard cold, but these guys were in some very insulated nucs...guess it didn't help.
One of them I know had some varroa issues in fall. at one point they cast out a half cup of larva and DWV bees. But even in that nuc I could still count the varroa on the bottom...certainly not hundreds and hundreds. It kind of looked like that nuc went in stages. There was a small dead cluster in the frames, under that a big pile of dead bees with capping wax on them, and under those a number of loose partial pupated bees.
This nuc also had some eggs, but no brood. There are maybe 4-5 brown streaks inside, but I assume nosema is massive streaking?
The other had a larger cluster still in the frames and many fewer on the hive floor. Some mites but fewer than nuc 1. No streaking. Again, lots of stores. Lots of bees with head in comb. Neither Nuc had much pollen, just small patches of cells here and there. Both had very minor condensation...realy just some light frost in the corners.
Both were started from swarms in the beginning of July.
I guess I will tackle the full hive tomorrow and see what went on there