During winter us beekeepers start to miss spending time with our bees.  We just want to check in on them and make sure everything is perfect but we also don't want to disturb the cluster. I've found an observation hive to be a great way to continue observing the behavior of a colony.  I typically choose a small colony in fall that to no fault of their own won't survive winter outside.  Usually a late rescue that didn't have time to build stores. Above is a modular 2 frame set