In the very coldest time of winter all the bees are doing is shivering
their flight muscles to heat the cluster. The temperature of the cluster
at that time only has to prevent the death of the adult bees.

Once the winter starts to get milder many races of bees will start brood
production. The cluster temperature, and the amount of honey consumed is
much higher.

A coloney that came through the worst part of winter can starve itself out
just a few weeks before the first honey flows in the spring. There are
many other issues you should understand. Take a look at
http://www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee/contentpages/articles.html or
http://www.beekeeper.org/george_imirie/ for George Imirie's Pink Pages.

On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, Rod Angell wrote:

> Why do bees consume more honey when it warms up , instead of in very cold weather?  I live in Missouri and this has been a very mild winter.  It seems the bees are using up their stores of honey faster.  I would appreciate any replies.
>