> A bit of solar warmth occasionally will enable them, for a short while, to reach other stores in the hive and bring them back to the cluster for sharing. 

Beekeepers seems to agree that added warmth from the sun can be beneficial and aid in clusters moving within hives.  This seems  to be true, whether the beekeepers consider a mere occasional frost to be cold enough to challenge the bees sufficiently to inhibit such moving, or whther their bees routinely survive through weeks of minus forty C and colder.

What are the facts, and are they universal?  Szabo published some diagrams illustrating cluster movement within hives in very cold temperatures, obtained using a matrix of sensors embedded within hives.  The study seems to illustrate that bees can and do move to new feed within a hive without external heat being applied.

That having beeen said, when other factors are considered like weak hives, patches of brood, diseases and aging bees, anything that helps bees cover more feed would seem to be a good idea.  

On the other hand, it is easy to show that warming hives and stimulating them results in greater feed consumption, increased restlessness, and an earlier need to fly for defecation.

I am watching some hives wintering on a scale, and the feed consumption does seem to actually diminish as temperature drops, although reason would suggest that there must be a point at which the temperature has dropped sufficiently that greater fuel consumption becomes necessary to maintain the minimum temperatures required for survival.

That said, I usually don't wrap until just before Christmas since I feel that the hives, being broodless, do just fine and stay settled.  After Christmas, various factors tend to stimulate brood rearing and the hives are more vulnerable to sudden temperature changes and winds.

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