Hi all,
Allen brought up some good points as did others.
I replied to Jeffrey off line when he first asked outlining type of probes
and placement as to what I did.

The key element is simply that the hive has to go into the winter strong and
healthy.

My own in depth probe study results years ago gave me an excellent overview
of what evolves in several hives from November to March.
Sure once the cluster settles in the temperatures surrounding it, in the
ambient air, walls, frames, do drop but not tremendously as one would think
and as in my case, one inch styro box slipped over the outside helped.
After all we've all been told to dress in layers to protect from the cold
and sometimes there's material in clothing such as e.g. thinsulate that does
the trick instead of many layers. Still if one remains in the cold long
enough the heat loss begins to increase regardless of the garb.

If there wasn't substantial heat produced then the humidity wouldn't be
great enough and the dew point wouldn't be reached with condensation
fromation, thus a requirement for an upper entrance and most important the
size of the upper entrance. In my case I have two openings in the inner
cover, the size of which I can control and with baffles on the outside on
opposite ends, a draft is set up effectively removing condensation. The
baffles prevent turbulence from taking place.

Bees control the ambient hive temps in the summer and I expect that once the
cluster begins to move and population growth begins they once more begin to
control the ambient temperature and humidity respectively. In fact I found
with the multi probe hives that temperature rise on solid objects was
consistent regardless of the outside temperatures, and that was what I
wanted to see. i.e.  How well the population dealt with maintaining the in
hive temperatures.

Walter
littlewolfapiaries.com

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