Ari, I do not have any personal experience but I follow Ian Steppler's blog. Ian over winters about 1000 hives indoors. Here is an excerpt from his Feb 12 2015 blog.

"I found my first blow out hive of the winter.  I call it a blowout because that pretty much is what it looks like.  Dead bees, small frazzled cluster and poop everywhere.  No other signs of stress in the shed other than ‘honey crumbs’ littered on many of my hives landing boards. Cold dry air as of lately has caused my winter shed RH to drop down to below 30% even with the low air exchange.  Yesterday I turned on the humidifier again and will wet the floor to bring the RH up to 45-50%.  I did not see a lot of canola honey stored away in the hives this past fall but obviously there is some in there!"

My outdoor wintered bees will collect water on sunny days in early spring. I assume it is to help liquefy the last of the winter feed that has granulated.

Regards Peter

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