>I have no interest in debating if one should insulate or not, that is up to you and where you live in the world. I just want to understand the processes behind it. Healthy bees are still the most important factor.
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I understand it as looking for a configuration of beehives. The social aspect of hibernation of many individuals is interesting.

Social hibernation must have the same element as the solitary type. The difference is that it is in charge of restoring the broods during wintering itself.

This brings us to configurations that are influenced by the hive and its thermodynamics.

In essence, it can be said that undisturbed wintering is about cold and dryness in the first decades, and after the turn of the solstice, about the safety of heat and the right humidity for the brood.

So, in practice, this means not wearing warm clothes until the solstice for the health of the microbiology, and after the solstice to wear warm clothes for the sake of health and microbiology. So the most important thing is to have peace-do-not-disturb written on the beehive. Then the metabolism settles on the cold regime and the changes caused by the gradual change due to the position of the Earth in relation to the Sun.

So reliable research must be remote and non-contact. Just moving around the hives for research is bad for the do not disturb sign.

This means that it is all about the approach to understanding wintering, not just about the beehive itself.

Gustav Palan

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