Not sure if they got disease and died or if they starved. I did a treatment for mites, made sure their honey reserves were good and even put pollen patties and an in the hive feeder just in case. I wrap my hives with 1" insulation on three sides then silver backed bubble wrap for the winter. They will do very well like this but sometimes you do everything right and they still die. When I had them in my yard I never lost a colony in three years.
Packages come with one queen and 5000 or so workers.