I hardly qualify as "North," being 100 miles south of St. Louis, MO, but it does get cold here, a damp, bone-chilling, cold down to single digits on the thermometer.  We don't have extended periods of prolonged cold I experienced growing up in Minnesota.  We get snow and lots of freezing rain.
   
  As it pertains to the topic, I have successfully over wintered 6-frame nucs in SE Missouri.  Why six frames?  It was the best size nuc I could build with the scrap lumber I had available.  If I were wealthy, I would probably have bought the prevailing size.  Instead, I'm rich in creativity and used what was available.
   
  I do not stack my nucs.  I do not wrap them.  They come through the winter on a minimum of stores.  If I had one complaint, they don't seem to warm up in the spring as fast, and brood development seems behind my established hives, but once the warmer spring weather arrives, they come on marvelously well.  These nucs all contained queens I raised in the summer.
   
  Having tried this same arrangement this year, I've also added some styrofoam nucs (see Keith Malone's plans) to hold in the warmth of early spring.  I will let you all know how it comes out.
   
  Grant
  Jackson, MO
   
   

 
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