> All that time the tractor stood in the snow, one meter away from
> the hive ...The temperature was around -4C.

> ...I wondered what the chances would be that the bees
> got disturbed so much by the vibrations and noise that they would
> break away from the cluster and what the results could be if this
> happened?

I would not expect any problem from this.

Assuming the bees did not show up at the entrance, I would assume either
that they were not disturbed much, or they were already dead or too weak to
react.

Even if they did break cluster and even come out the entrances a bit, I
still would expect no ill effects.  Bees typically do break cluster a number
of times during winter and move around, then cluster again, so, even if they
did so due to the tractor, I think they should be fine.

We used to pick up and move hives between yards on our flat-deck trucks in
late Fall, and at temperatures anywhere from minus 10 to plus 10, with no
apparent ill effects.  Sometimes they sat overnight on the truck and then
rode around again, sometimes for several days, before we put them down
somewhere.

Occasional short-duration _external_ disturbances don't seem to have any
lasting effect on wintering bees, in my experience, anyhow.

allen
A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/

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