deknow asked:
>2.  Has anyone ever observed a cluster move sideways during the winter?<

       Years ago my wife and I visited Buckfast Abbey a short time after Brother Adasm's death. The head beekeeper there gave us a tour of the beeyard, where they were keeping hives in clusters of four units. He said that the winter clusters would move sideways in response to the heat from the clusters in the adjacent boxes. He said that the four clusters would end up next to each other in the four touching corners at the center of the group of four boxes. 
       You often see four hives kept on pallets. Have others on this list seen this sideways move of a cluster towards heat ? I have wondered if there might be a technique employing this principle to get a cluster to keep moving sideways in a long box hive- maybe by putting a very low level artificial heat source at the end of the box. That might solve the "starvation-in-place" phenomenon that apparently is a problem with horizontal top bar hives in winter climates.
                                                
                                                  Ernie Huber

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