I met up with my apprentice, Sarah, of Bee Happy Plants at a meeting of 
DARG, the Devon Apicultural Research Group today and we were able to 
compare graphs of temperatures taken inside and outside hives: the 
National hive on my allotment and my TBH at Sarah's, 20 miles west of 
me and 50 feet lower.  Interestingly they both had a sudden large 
temperature rise, indicating brood rearing starting, on the same day: 
2nd January.

Unexpectedly, Sarah's graph showed the outside temperature was an 
almost exact mirror image of the inside temperature: one rising while 
the other fell and vice versa.  My guess is that, in the TBH, we 
managed, by luck rather than judgement, to place the sensor right in 
the middle of the cluster and when it gets cold the bees cuddle up, 
warming the sensor as well as each other.

Chris

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