You want healthy bees, they should not be sick and dying. The comb should look pretty and have pollen/honey stores. The queen trap goes before the box you want to get honey from, usually a top box or separate hive with a connection and queen trap to keep her out. The box that the queen cannot...
honey doesn't spoil, it can be eaten after very long periods of time and you can make things like honey mead or use it as a sugar substitute or dehydrate it into honey suckers.