Honeybees do not hibernate — they survive winter by clustering into a tight ball around the queen and vibrating their flight muscles to generate heat. The colony's job is to hold that cluster core near ~34°C even as the air outside drops far below freezing. Beekeepers help by cutting heat loss: a weatherproof wrap, a moisture-absorbing insulation board on top, and a mouse guard that blocks drafts and rodents at the entrance.
A healthy winter cluster can hold its core temperature dozens of degrees above the outside air using only stored honey as fuel — but if the outer edge of the cluster drops much below about 8°C, bees there lose the ability to move back toward the warm center, which is why insulation and draft-proofing matter as much as raw cold.
A 3D hive shows how wrapping, an insulation board and a mouse guard change how much of a winter cluster's self-generated heat actually stays inside as outdoor temperature and wind swing through a cold spell.
A simplified thermal model combines outdoor temperature, wind-driven heat loss and the retention added by each winterizing measure to estimate the cluster's internal temperature, visualised on a live gauge and a cluster that tightens as it cools.
Drag the outdoor temperature and wind sliders to simulate a cold snap, then toggle the hive wrap, insulation board and mouse guard to see how much of the heat loss each one prevents.
Bees don't heat the whole hive — only the cluster itself, which can hold its core dozens of degrees above the outside air by burning stored honey and vibrating their flight muscles non-stop.