Studies with thermistors placed thru hives and within clusters are ubiquitous and consistent - the centre is 37c, the edge of the cluster is 5-10c, and the air space can be as low as ambient. See Dr. Szabo's work in northern Alberta

In the recent discussion about blue board, I postulated that while it can help limit conductive losses once the clusters radiant losses have heated any solid covers above it, that method of reducing heat loss doesn't entirely match the way bees loose heat, and suggested an experiment using a reflective bubble wrap as a top cover, and measuring loss of hive weight.  Does anyone know if this line of inquiry has been tried, or do we have any mechanical engineers among us that could hypothesize?

Overall, the literature seem to support that various insulation regimes "generally"  seem to result in "stronger" clusters in the spring, especially since tracheal and varroa mites arrived. I am simply wondering if a reflective insulation would be "better" still, but don't want to reinvent the wheel. A measure of "better" might be a bigger spring cluster and/or less food consumed. Either or both are valuable economic endpoints.

Greg Hawkins
Everton ON

Greg Hawkins DVM
CentaurVA Animal Health
Sent from my iPad
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