Energy Consumption Chart

**BeeCurious** · 10-21-2010, 07:57 AM

The following chart is copied from the book "Observation Hives" by Webster and Caron.

I thought I would scan and post it for others to see.

**valleyman** · 10-21-2010, 01:35 PM

Good post, thank you
Made me realize that you can sorta know how much of their stores are gone by the number of cold days you have. In other words if you are having a cold winter they will need more stores. For those that have snow cover their hives it will take less stores because snow is very good insulator

**camero7** · 10-21-2010, 01:37 PM

That's why those that winter their bees indoors keep the temp around 40° F. Least stores eaten.

**scdw43** · 10-25-2010, 10:20 PM

Good post.

**sjj** · 10-26-2010, 06:43 AM

If it's too cold, bees will probably start breeding.

Did the authors observe this phenomenon?

**bigbearomaha** · 10-26-2010, 07:07 AM

It also indicates that the better the hive is at retaining heat, the less bees have to work to maintain a certain in-hive temperature. Which also reduces the amount of stores consumed to maintain said heat level.

**waynesgarden** · 10-26-2010, 07:21 AM

Originally Posted by sjj

If it's too cold, bees will probably start breeding.

Did the authors observe this phenomenon?

That's something I've never heard. Counter-intuitive. Did you mean "too warm?"

Wayne

**Joes_bees** · 11-15-2012, 11:53 AM

So 5 deg C = 40 deg F and is the temp that Bees cluster and eat the least amount of honey.

Any higher and they start carrying out hive duties and need more honey to fuel their activity.

So if it's 40 deg F outside the hive but the hive is REALLY well insulated, do the bees do more hive activity?
Does that low point in the graph of the metabolic rate of the hive move if it is well insulated?