>The thesis has not moved the ball down the field at all...

To make sure we are on the same page, I understand that this is the essential nugget from the current research under consideration:

'By using porous material correlations, analysis of previous findings and a model of a cluster within a hive in a landscape that implements convection, conduction and radiation, we show that a honeybee colony increases in thermal conductivity, on transition from pre-cluster to dense mantle, by a factor of approximately 2, and insulation R-value can decrease by more than 11.'  

So while I can understand taking umbrage with the conclusions drawn from this observation, it appears that the fluid mechanics undergirding this observation are fairly sound - so this appears to me to be something noteworthy that deserves further consideration.

In a previous paper, Mr. Mitchell looked into the question of approximating a tree cavity (attached). This paper is in a similar vein to Seeley and Radcliffe's field observations (also attached), which added occupied insulated and uninsulated colonies to the mix for comparison.


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