On Friday 05 November 2004 10:59 am, Lesli St. Clair wrote:
> Bill Truesdell wrote:
> > With extremely cold winters, when the average temp is below 28F,
> > wrapping or some kind of insulation is definitely beneficial and could
> > be essential for winter survival.

No its really different in a tree. A tree is a harsher place to live than our
beehives. Tree trunks don't protect the bees as well from the elements. THe
structure of our beehives in many ways provides better shelter. The geometry
alone allows are bees to cluster tigher being more energy efficient. Our
hives ventilate better and the beekeeper can manage ventilation.

Wrapping hives is like putting the bees in the dark. When we wrap our beehives
we are preventing the sun from shining directly on them. Sure it may help
insulate radiant heat, but that goes both ways. Preventing them from having a
few hours of thermal relief. Bees can survive REALLY COLD weather, so long as
they don't have to endure the cold for so long. When you find bees that died
in cluster from starvation with plentiful stores at the edge of the cluster,
you can bet its because they couldn't get warm during the day. I believe the
bees need this thermal relief so they can adjust the cluster to what's needed
for the next evening(s). It also saves on winter stores if they don't have to
consume as much to stay warm for while.

--
Scot Mc Pherson
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http://linuxfromscratch.org/~scot
http://beewiki.linuxfromscratch.org
AIM: ScotLFS ICQ: 342949 MSN:[log in to unmask]

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