On 26 Jan 97 at 0:58, John Taylor wrote: Re: Wintering Report > hive brought a strong humm. After snow about two weeks ago, followed > by single digit temperatures, we had a day back up around 60 on the > 22nd. > > Checking the bees this last warm day revealed dead bees in the reduced > entrance. There is a second entrance in the front of the top feeder, > so I initially wasn't too worried. Except I didn't see any bees > flying. Removing the entrance reducer revealed a solid mass of wet, > dead bees, that looked as if they had been getting ready for a > cleansing flight (lots of yellow specks attached to the bees). > Opening the hive showed plenty of stores left and every last bee dead. I think the key here is that cold snap. Dr. Nasr did work on "The thermo-regulation of the cluster" He found that bees which were carrying T-mites would die during cold weather. It seems that when the temperature drops the bees need considerably more oxygen intake to keep the cluster temp up. As the bees trachea became more clogged by mites there was less space to absorb oxygen, they suffocated and became chilled to the point of dying. This is one reason that we up here in the cold suffer more winter losses from T-mites, than say for example someone in Florida!! ********************************************************* The Bee Works, 9 Progress Drive Unit 2, Orillia, Ontario, Canada. L3V 6H1 David Eyre, Owner. Phone/Fax 705 326 7171 Dealers for E.H.Thorne & B.J.Sherriff UK http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks *********************************************************