Hi Allen

An observation I have made in early spring may be of some interest. I winter 
in rows of five with Styrofoam insulation on all four sides. The bees may 
not deliberately heat the cavities, but they warm them enough to draw the 
attention of the bees on either side. One normally finds the weaker hives 
jammed up against the side that has the next hive's cluster against it. This 
means in practice that there are two pairs of hives with clusters next to 
each other and one lonely hive by itself.

With my old top entrances they also push to the back, away from the top 
entrance i.e. they are in a corner. In the corner they have no place to go 
except back from whence they came, and they have eaten all the honey there. 
Bad deal.

The hives that are away from the heat of the others seem to do about as well 
as the ones huddled together. They are in a spherical shape and there is 
honey available on all sides. I find that hives insulated with Styrofoam all 
by themselves do about as well as the ones in groups of five.

                                    Best regards

                                    Donald Aitken 

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