Hive full of bees. Great. Not during inspection

[LazyBkpr]

With temps in the 30's I would not open them up.
   If thats at night and you have 60's in the daytime then it wouldnt be bad to open them up when it was warm, so they have time to regroup before it gets back down close to freezing.

[apisbees]

if the temp is above 50 deg. F. the bees will not be clustered and it will not heart them to pull them apart. The bottom supper of 2 may be empty and if so should be removed. if you got 4 supers of honey one of two should be removed. Don't let fear and intimidation keep you from doing the fall inspection that should be done. You don't need to be pulling every frame, you can tell a lot by the weight and looking down the top and up from the bottom. see if it is all honey, areas of brood whether there are many bee in the super or are they just a few hanging out.

[Ray]

It's a fear of screwing up and losing a colony, not fear of the bees, that is causing my concern. The forecasted highs are around 50 and the lows are high 30s, until the weekend then a slight warm up.

[apisbees]

You don't want to be rearranging the hive at this late date unless you find some major issues. One might be a frame of foundation that the bees have not built out yet in the center of the brood box or winter feed super. Something like this I would remove or move it to the outside edge out of where the bees will winter cluster. Having and leaving 6 supers to me is excessive. If the bees are right up at the top I would think that the bottom super or 2 may not have many bees in them. Leaving them in place when there are not enough bees to occupy them is an invitation for mice to build a winter nest, and in the spring for wax moths and small hive Beatles to invade before the colony has built up to reoccupy the space.