A fellow beekeeper sent me a link today. I'm not too sure of the science behind it. Some of it well known. The first part, about what people used to think about bee pupae keeping the hive warm is dubious to me, but I don't know.
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/06/how-honey-bees-keep-their-hives-warm-given-that-they-are-cold-blooded/ (http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/06/how-honey-bees-keep-their-hives-warm-given-that-they-are-cold-blooded/)
What do you think of this?
Gary
This has been believed and supported for like 5 years now. Not only heater bees, but also the belief that the specific heat also determines what the pupae will be later as well. so ya. I never got the whole pupae thing anyways frankly. it's sorta silly imo.
I thought that was probably from you when I got an email about your response, BTB. Some of that makes sense, but a lot of it seems like conjecture. I don't see any links to scientific sources.
Gary
well here's some science in the form of a picture showing a thermal of heater bees:
(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/foghog_2006/HEATER.jpg) (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/foghog_2006/media/HEATER.jpg.html)
and notice where the heat is originating from which shows the twitching of the muscle and detaching the wings to allow them to do so aspect:
(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/foghog_2006/hotbee_1596533f.jpg) (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/foghog_2006/media/hotbee_1596533f.jpg.html)
Good pictures and there's no way to argue it's any other way. Do they get into empty cells to heat the larvae and whatever else? I think I've read they do that in winter to keep the cluster warm, but what about other times?
In the summer I do not think it is needed, so much and is pretty much what we've thought of as a standard clustering and hive configuration forever. but I think it changes on area, and thus factors like weather/etc. so not sure there is going to be 'A' answer. I think the open cells are to add specific extra heat in limited amounts to the limited amounts of pupae they wish to make into specific lower numbered jobs perhaps. but there are not pupae there throughout the whole winter, and they have seen bees go into open cells anyways. So maybe they just are programmed to do it, and it happens to serve a purpose when they do it into a cell surrounded by pupae?