>> This may dampen temperature fluctations.

> In the winter, it drops to ambient, unless there are bees clustered on  it.

When the bees are clustered, the volume surrounding the cluster has
been reported to be close to the ambient.

It is widely believed, however, that combs of honey exhibit a heat
inertia effect which slows the changing of the internal hive
temperature when the external temperatures change.

It is also believed that this is a benefit that comes from wrapping,
since drafts are controlled and any insulation slows the movement of
heat both in and out of the hive, allowing the cluster time to adjust.
 (Once the cluster breaks, though the importance of insulation and
draft control is increased, since at that point the bees are releasing
more heat into the hive volume and the geometry and insulation
qualities determine whether the extent of that warming).

I don't know of any study which has actually measured these effects,
but I should think it would be exceedingly easy to demonstrate the
magnitude of these hysteresis and dampening effects.

The above effects are pretty much considered fact, however, what is
not established is why beekeepers claim to observe lower winter feed
consumption and less activity in well-provisioned hives compared to
hives with small amounts of feed in storage.

Again this should be very easy to demonstrate.

Hope we have some grad students and supervisors reading.  There have
been many good projects mentioned here lately.

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