Sechrist, Sechrist. I remember him from the 1970s. Of course, he was dead by then, he was born in the 1870s. This guy was off the deep end. He had this idea of increasing honey production by using electric heaters on the hives. The whole apiary would be wired up. Some folks took the idea seriously, too. In 1940 claims for the advantages of electric hive heaters were being made without data. Therefore, studies were conducted at Madison, Wis., for 5 years to determine the effects of hive heaters on bees. Three commercial hive heaters were tested against unprotected hives and against protected hives without heat and against hives heated by heating tape. All hives consisted of three modified Dadant hive bodies. All packed and heated hives were insulated on all sides with 2 inches of insulation. Hives were also placed in heated boxes to determine the effects of storing hives at various room temperatures. The use of commercial hive heaters was discontinued after 2 years because they were inefficient or had adverse effects on the cluster. Five years of tests show that colonies of bees in good condition will winter at Madison, Wis., without packing or heating. Clusters respond to changes in air temperature according to the degree of their protection, but supplementary heat reduces this response. ELECTRIC HEATING OF HONEY BEE HIVES UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE In Cooperation With Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station C. L. FARRAR, apiculturist *********************************************** 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