7/28/2023 0 Comments Insulating bee hivesUltimately, the heat dissipates from the mantle’s surface into the convective airflow around the cluster. In this way, the heat being generated in the mantle layers is equalized and distributed by the action of younger bees at the core. At the core, the temperature would continue to increase until the cluster overheats, but instead, the younger bees at the center expand and loosen the core allowing excess heat to flow back to the outer layers of the mantel. When bees cluster tight and shiver, the heat they generate reaches down to the core. The temperature of bees in a cluster are regulated in three different ways, first by conduction because they are touching, then by radiant heat from bees nearby, and finally, with convection via air movement. There is also some research indicating that a higher level of carbon dioxide increases the mortality of wintering Varroa. The changed environment around the cluster induces the bees into an “ultra low metabolic rate” which conserves energy and traps some needed humidity. Both these conditions would be toxic to humans, but to bees these alterations are intentional. Their respiration, in combination with reduced ventilation, creates an environment with increased carbon dioxide and reduced levels of oxygen. While shivering, bees are using fuel, oxygen, and exhaling carbon dioxide. 2 As an interlaced cluster they form a naturally efficient insulation cooperative.Īs the body temperatures of the mantel bees fall, they generate heat by using their indirect flight muscles to shiver. Since a bee’s hair has similar properties to down, bees resist heat loss, and their layered bodies close off ventilation through the cluster and between combs. Bees can precisely position their bodies in layers so their thoracic hairs interlace. The cluster responds to changes in temperature by expanding to dissipate heat and contracting to conserve heat. Away from the center the color darkens, as the temperature is lower.ĭuring Winter, bees cluster in a configuration that has a dense outer layer of older bees, sometimes referred to as a mantle, covering an inner core of more loosely packed younger bees. The bright yellow indicates the warmest part or the center of the cluster. An infrared photo reveals a tightly packed Winter cluster.
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