Donald Aitken  wrote:

> >I winter in rows of five with Styrofoam insulation on all four sides.
>

My wintering is the same, but the insulation is only on three sides, nothing
except the black wrap outside the styrofoam on the south side, which has the
top and bottom entrances.  About four inches of wood shavings in the top
feeders for top insulation.

I notice exactly the same situation as you have described with small
clusters starving in the back corners sometimes having been drawn by the
heat away from the optimum (central in the stores).  But sometimes these
dinks still have honey there and the position problem is secondary to a
queen problem or insufficient population from a varroa treatment too late,
or nosema, or stores that are crystallized rock hard (I think perhaps the
outside frames are crystallized more often than central ones).

But I rarely winter any singles anymore, so I found your observation about
small hives wintering as well in them as in the lines very interesting.

Thanks
Stan

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