winter checks

I was talking to a new beekeeper today who has possibly lost one of her colonies going into her first winter of beekeeping. From what I can gather, it seems the colony has starved. It didn't have enough honey going into winter. But when I asked if she gave the bees any kind of emergency...

So one of my hives does not respond to the winter "knock" test; no buzz at all. Because of this, when it was colder in Dec. I thought it had died. But much to my surprise last weekend when I opened the top there were bees. There are not a ton of bees, maybe only a few thousand. There is a laying...

So something weird is going on in one of my hives. A few weeks ago I did the knock on the side test to listen for that familiar buzz, to check to make sure they were alive. The hive in question didn't buzz, so I looked up underneath through the screened bottom board and I saw bees walking...

This is my first winter with the bees - I live in eastern Ontario and have hopefully taken care of the condensation issue by keeping at least two small holes open (one top and one bottom). One of the hives was weak as it was a late swarm, we fed it until they no longer would feed on the liquid...