Question for Beekeepers

Ok, its spring and my friend Jon and I have 3 hives... had 3 hives.  Now we have 2 dead hives and 1 strong hive.  I have a couple of questions for beekeepers here.  I am pretty much a novice and I tend toward a hands-off approach to beekeeping.  The yellow hive on the left is dead (bees still there), the top bar hive in the middle is dead (no bees), and the white hive on the right is strong.
Here is the entrance to the yellow hive - it was never strong - captured from a swarm from the white hive.
Inside the super of the yellow hive. There are a bunch of bees still here (dead).  There is very little honey left and that honey is on the outside frames.
  • Inside the brood chamber - no bees on the brood frames.  I assume these guys fell from the top.  
  • Question #1:  Did this hive starve?
  • Inside the yellow hive brood frame - small white flakes in the comb.  
  • Question #2:  Any ideas on what those are?
Top bar hive.  Inside are top bars that had only a small spline coated in wax.  Caught a swarm from the white hive and put them in.  The sides are sloped at such an angle that the bees think the sides are floor and so do not attach the comb to the sides (so you can take out the frames)
They build the hive from the front to the back - so brood is in the front and honey is in the back (instead of top to bottom like conventional hives).  This frame is from the back.  Totally empty.
  • This frame is from the front.  Totally empty.  
  • Question #3:  Any ideas why this hive might be gone?  There's no honey.  But there's no bees either.  Is it CCD, or is more left behind with CCD?  
  • Question #4: Why does wax turn dark?  Is that where brood was?
  • Question #5: Any opinions on whether we should start a new hive in this and leave the wax, or harvest the wax and start from scratch again?

Thanks!

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