Hello Dennis,
> Long hives in Michigan. Very interesting! How do overwinter the bees?

In my opinion they would winter ok in mild climates but winter *could* be a
problem because the bees make a choice which way for the cluster to move .
If you are in a area where the temperature drops down and stays down the
side the cluster decides to move to (left or right) would each side need
enough stores to provide stores for the extended period. Confinning the
queen to left or right side with a queen excluder would solve the problem.
Warm spells through out winter would also solve the problem. I doubt even
the "Long hivers" would argue with the above and with careful preperation
long hives would winter.

Do  the bees learn to move horizontally?

My queen rearing partner has a long hive with standard removable frames
which we use. He made the long hive so we can keep the queen in the center
section confined by a queen excluder on each side. The queen is a expensive
II breeder queen (not SMR) and we need to find her often. We control the
area she has to lay eggs in to keep her from running out of semen early. A
few frames is all she has to lay eggs on at any time. We add sealed brood to
keep the hive at the right strength. I will ask my friend when I see him
today if he has ever wintered bees in his long hive and if he encountered
problems.
I would winter a bit different with his long hive. I would rearrange the
nest at the end of brood rearing and put the nest at the far end of one side
or the other. I would then put all the sealed honey from the nest to the far
other side and pull both queen excluders. Then in my opinion the bees would
move slowly across the box using up stores and be on the opposite side the
next spring. In the spring I would rearrange and put the nest in the center
so less frame would need to be looked at (in our case) in finding the queen
and checking her work. Monitor the queen is our use for the long hive and my
only experience.
For those on Bee-L not following me the long hive as set up with the nest in
center is like a hive in three langstroth boxes with the nest in the center
and a deep of honey above and one below. To winter properly in a cold area
the nest needs to be below all the honey or above all the honey. Below  in
my opinion is better but I have successfully wintered both ways. Starvation
is according to bee books the number one cause of winter bee hive loss. I
will rearrange a brood nest in a heartbeat to better winter. Time consuming
but I hate dealing with deadouts.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
" Deadouts are indeed a measure of your beekeeping skills!"
Ps. One of the sites Allen listed to look at for winter information listed
around 25% winter losses with their methods.  I consider 25% to be
unacceptable.  I have had those levels before (not often)  and place the
blame on myself and not mites or cold winters.