Wintering bees permaculture ways

I work with a top bar hive and normally just make sure the bees are blocked from our strong north winds and are starting at one side to work there way over there stores. We don't feed and don't take much honey in the fall, I harvest honey during late spring and summer normally. Curious how others overwinter and what hive styles are being used in the community.

The folks on permies use a wide variety of hive types including Warre, Langstroth, & various types of top bar & other horizontal hives. There a few who use logs too.

I've never kept bees in an extremely cold climate. Insulated a couple of hives one winter but the uninsulated ones did just as well. I fed them the first couple of winters but since then have learned not to take too much honey so they won't need supplemental food during winter. I believe their own honey & pollen is better for them than sugar or the artificial foods available. I started not taking any honey in spring but waited until right after winter once I was sure they had enough fresh flowers & trees to work with. That worked out very well.

I moved late this spring & started from scratch with some nucs in mid summer. The main honey flow was over so mine don't have much in reserve this year. I started feeding them with sugar & an artificial pollen mixture (couldn't find real pollen for sale) about a month ago. Next year they are completely on their own. I don't baby my bees. Survival of the fittest.

I have little experience, being only in my second summer but having bought my operation fr9m an exp3rienced Beek in the area when they retired I can share a bit about what I think is helpful.

Fwiw many beeks in my area lost most or all of their hives this winter, I lost 1 directly to the cold(or disease during the cold) and 1 got combined with another weak hive in late spring, so I went into winter with 14 hives and now have 12

I guess it is standard practice to wrap the hives in tar paper for the winter, the people I bought from recently transitioned to weed block just before I bought the operation, I've continued this practice. The idea is the black material adds a layer of insulation and absorbs heat.
The tar paper traps moisture and Is a poor material imo
The weed block allows moisture to breath and evaporate while absorbing heat and creating dead air space that I think helps with insulation a great deal

The other thing that I think can help is some form of insulation in the roof, such as foam insulation or old political signs

But of course it is important to allow airflow,  address moisture and be careful not to seal the hive shut, I think that like chickens many people make this mistake believing they must stop any cold air from entering in the first place, and I think that's the wrong approach

What I do may not be the most permaculture appropriate technology but I think there is a 50/50 chance that it is effective in helping bees survive a climate where this winter we had ambient Temps of -40F and much more snow and moisture than is typical for our area(though it could've been luck)

However hopefully this points out what are worthwhile goals in overwintering bees and we can discuss the correct materials to achieve these goals in an efficient and ecologically appropriate way ,