I've tried a number of different ways for wintering a hive in PA. My best success came when I have had 3 mediums (or equivalent), full hive of course, solid or closed SBBs, mouse guards, and the inner cover cracked the width of the fat part of a door/window shim. Last year I tried keeping an extra box or two of honey on top of the original 3 mediums I normally winter with, just to see what happened...those 3 hives died. The only one that survived was the one wintered as I mentioned above. Any other year, no issues due to the weather.