About 7 kg of honey bees were caged, stored for 2 days, and subdivided into 3 populations: ca. 4,400, 8,900, and 34,000 bees. The bees then were placed in hives that had no brood and a known quantity of honey. The resulting colonies had ca. 2 liters of space and one caged queen per 1,000 bees. Worker survival, honey loss per bee, colony temperature, and survival of caged queens were compared in six replicates. Each replicate covered 20 to 27 days during winter in Baton Rouge, La. Population size had no effect on survival of workers or caged queens. However, larger populations were significantly warmer than smaller populations when the ambient temperature was<13°C (P<0.05). Honey loss per bee per day was significantly greater for 4,400 bees (mean ± SD = 6.7 ± 1.5 mg) than for 8,900 (4.5 ± 1.7 mg) or 34,000 (4.2 ± 0.7 mg) bees (P<0.05).