Love these Carniolan Bees

Seems like most of the US is in the deep freeze the later half of 2017 into the start of 2018.   Don't worry about your bees if you prepared them correctly, gave them plenty of stores, made sure they are behind a good windbreak. Prepared so moisture can escape from an upper entrance. Mouse protection on the lower entrance. Went into winter with a lot of bees raised from August/September on and did excellent mite control with monitoring prior to and after that time. There is nothing to worry about.

Go on vacation, don't open your hive. Even if they are not ok, there is nothing you can do now anyway. Winter has just started, quit worrying. The only thing you can do now is, if your below the Mason Dixon line, lift the back of the hive to see what weight they are at, maybe pop the top lid for a quick look, repeat quick look on a 60 degree day in January to access where the cluster is. A cluster high up means they are probably running out of stores. Then, just chill and leave your bees alone. You are doing more harm than good disturbing them and more harm to your mental health worrying about them.