Well, I'm speaking for Texas where its hot summer and winter. We don't worry about winters, we don't have them in Central Texas. But where winters are a problem, a follower board increases winter survival rate by shrinking the space they need to heat.
Okay...now I'm confused. This is the first I heard of this...not that it is wrong, because it does make sense. Similar to a Langstoth hive in winter; take off the honey supers. I do have a follower board, but after reading M. Bush's site more, and getting my hive established, I think I will remove it.
However, if you want to be 'natural', and after reading M. Bush's website, feeding honey in the winter is the way to go, not sugar (if you don't have to). So, if you use the follower board to reduce space, where do you put all of the brood comb and honey comb?
Seems like one would leave it wide open for the bees to have access to the honey. They don't get a seasonally reduced space in nature.