>
> >Some thoughts - bees cluster to keep warm by RADIANT heat


Or more precisely, kept warm by conserving the metabolic heat produced.
 This heat is exchanged largely by bee-to-bee conduction.  By clustering,
they minimize

1.  Convective heat loss by body-to-body contact (very dense) to slow
convective air movement within the cluster (very little atmosphere exchange
between the center of the cluster and the air outside the cluster)
2.  Radiant heat loss by minimizing the temperature of the outer layer of
bee abdomens (bees are able to shunt heat in their bodies to their heads),
and by minimizing the surface area of the cluster.

Randy Oliver

             ***********************************************
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