In this instance, it's clearly nature over nurture. This is a cultured breed, or was, at any rate (I don't have evidence that they swapped out the queen).

Combs are unpokable (there are cells on either side, with a partition in the middle). I could probably get the dead bees out with tweezers, but didn't have time to do that. I'll let bee undertaners take these out. I only scraped off these that were easy to remove, or in a pile under the frames.

I'll assume you meant winter. It's my first winter with bees, so I don't have much any experience. I'm glad these survived, and I resent that mouse that ate my 3rd hive (or whatever it did in there).

I've heard that bees will shiver themselves warm enough, if they have food. Therefore, they need to have food, obviously, and lots. I also hear that moisture is more dangerous to bees than cold.

Which reminds me, I really should read a beekeeping book cover-to-cover, instead of just picking up pieces of lore as I go...

Which process? Cleaning? My hives are about 2x bigger than necessary, so I have room to shift stuff.

1. Light up the smoker. Scare them with lots of smoke. Not sure why this works - there are different hypotheses around.
2. Sweep the floor in the spare end of the hive
3. Remove ceiling boards. Take out frames, brush off the corpses. Reinsert them into the spare end. Stay calm as they buzz around me like crazy. Move slowly and avoid jostling them. This part requires the most of dull.
4. Sweep the other end of the floor, which used to be under the frames
5. Poke dead bees out of the entrance
6. Move all frames back to their preferred locaticon

I saw one small beetlish thing, not sure if it's the same one. We must import our bananas, they don't want to grow here.