Bought some old hives

[rast]

 I bought 4 hives from an older beekeeper that hasn't taken care of them this summer. I paid $65 a piece for 3 of them. Consist of a deep and a medium. 1, I gave him $20 for. The 3 of them look pretty good inside other than old woodware. I am leaving all of them where they are for now due to 2 beautiful goldenrod fields next to them. When that quits, I will bring them home and nurse til the orange bloom here at the house.
The $20 dollar 1 was a medium setting on top of a deep with an excluder between them. Had a warped top cover that they were using for an entrance. When I lifted the cover the other day, looked like about 5 frames of bees in it. He said that box was a deadout and didn't even know there was any bees in it. The bottom board entrance was completely stopped up. When I went into it today to put then in a decent box, everything in the top med looked fine, had brood in it even. However, the deep on the bottom had bees in it also, what concerns me is that the bottom board stoppage was brown comb junk and old bee bodies. The bottom 1/4 of all the comb was gone and of course a few wax moths, but no worms yet. Probably eggs of course. I moved the five frames full of bees into my box with 5 more frames of drawn comb that I took with me. I shook all the bees from the deeps from the bottom combs in front of the new box.
Besides spraying with Certan. What should I do next. All those dead bee bodies worry me.

[Kathyp]

i'm not sure the dead bee bodies should be a worry.  any hive will have them if there are not enough bees to keep things clean, or if the bottom entrance gets clogged up.  i have to clean off my SBBs every spring because of the dead bees from winter. 
if there is no disease that you can see, the dead are probably just left over.

[Michael Bush]

You'll get used to dead bee bodies.  You'll find a small pile in even a healthy hive in the spring.  Scrape the bottom board off and forget that.  The thing I would watch for most in used hives is to examine the brood comb for "scale" that would indicate AFB.  Search for images on google and you can probably find some pictures of what it looks like.

[rast]

 I'm use to dead bee's in front of my hives, just not the amount in the bottom of this old hive.

[Brian D. Bray]

I'm use to dead bee's in front of my hives, just not the amount in the bottom of this old hive.

When an established hive dies out the dead bees often create a blanket on the bottom that can be several inches deep.  A swarm coming in and taking over the hive will enter through a different access.  Cleaning the dead bees out of the entrance will allow the new swarm better access to the hive and reopen the bottom of the frames clogged by dead bees.

With solid, or even screened, bottom boards cleaning the hive of dead bees on the bottom every spring is a good management tool. 
A strong hive can keep the dead bees clear of the hive during the spring, summer, and fall, but once they go into cluster much of their hygenic behavior goes dormant too.

I see nothing unusual in the situation.

[rast]

 Thanks for the replies. Even though its "only" a $20. hive I feel better now, especially after Brian's statement about several inches of dead bees. I lost some hives in August/Sept., but all the dead bees were in front of the hives, not in them.
After MB's suggestion of AFB possibility I went and poured over the brood frames from the dead bottom. At one time there were a lot of dead emerging brood in them, the complete bee carcass would slide right out, could not find any stuck scale in the bottoms of the brood combs. Only saw two that looked like they had their tongues out. I did not reuse anything except the five frames that had the bees and brood on them. Those five were in the upper and a lot newer comb than the lower.
I just don't want a $20 hive to make me lose $1000. in hives when/if I bring them home.
Thank's, Rick

[Michael Bush]

I wouldn't worry so much about tongues out as scale.  Chilled brood might have their tongues out as well.