hive population

Started with 4 this year and ended with 5. I’d love to hear from backyard beekeepers about the fun threshold and the right number of hives for them and why. My 5th colony was a swarm and its presently overwintering in 1/2 of a resource hive snuggled up to a big colony. Right now the best...

I've been wondering... since one of the virtues of Carniolans is that they winter over with smaller colonies (and thus need less food)... would it ever make sense to artificially imitate this virtue by just (gulp...) reducing the population of your hives in the fall? And if so, what's the...