>>>>>What I'm interested in is the heat transfer that takes place in the
inch of HONEY that separates the 3/8" of heat-generating bees.  At the
crosswise edges of the cluster, the honey forms conductive gaps between the
bee insulating shell.  The honey gaps are nearly three times as wide as the
seams of bees.<<<<<

The inch of honey you refer to could as easily be an inch of empty comb. I
picture the cluster as wider on top. As they eat their way up, the shape of
the cluster would be narrower on the lower half, where the honey has been
eaten and does not contact the bees.

This gives me a chance to work in something I've often wondered about. If
you hold an empty comb in one hand and a plastic frame in the other you
would have no doubt which item would soak more heat out of the cluster. One
could think of a cluster established on plastic, as having several vanes
radiating heat outward from the cluster. I'd be a lot more interested in a
study of this.

Dick Marron

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm