I lost 8 of my 10 hives in Northeastern Illinois last winter.  However,
the hives that survived I was able to split and the packages that I
purchased built up really well.  I just harvested 5 medium supers per
and will leave the fall flow for the bees.  Incidently, I don't think
that leaving the smaller (I know that it's different for each local) for
the winter is bad practice.  This will have the bees wintering on honey,
not imitation.