<story><title>Honeybee clustering when it&apos;s cold is a distress behavior: study</title><url>https://theconversation.com/honeybees-cluster-together-when-its-cold-but-weve-been-completely-wrong-about-why-218066</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ChumpGPT</author><text>We would use thick Styrofoam insulation (2-3) inches thick and would insulate the entire hive with it. In the winter we would feed them occasionally with warm honey&amp;#x2F;sugar. The Hives were also protected by a row of thick Evergreens as a wind break. Maybe lost one or two hives over a decade. If your not wrapping them and preparing them for winter than you shouldn&amp;#x27;t have bees.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>steve_adams_86</author><text>There seem to be a lot of hobbies or activities like beekeeping where people seriously neglect the animals&amp;#x27; needs yet seem quite oblivious to it. I&amp;#x27;ve noticed in aquaria that people often seem to think fish or shrimp will be fine in absolutely dire conditions such as low oxygen, chemically unstable, cold, hot, or otherwise hostile environments. They&amp;#x27;re genuinely confused when the system collapses. Certainly some species are very resilient, but it&amp;#x27;s no surprise that people lose entire hives or aquariums like this. Caring for nature requires real care, attention, and diligence.&lt;p&gt;As in aquaria, if you want something you can &amp;quot;set and forget&amp;quot;, you need to let nature take over and provide a) a biome resembling a natural habitat and b) place the appropriate species and scape inside it. Then you can get away with no mechanical filtration, no heater, no air, etc. You can safely go on vacation because the system will clean itself, generate food, and so on. But that requires considerable knowledge and care at the outset and the willingness to let things be. In the case of beekeeping, this almost seems like you&amp;#x27;d need to allow a hive to be inside of a log or stump or something where the bees are properly protected and secure. Barring that, you need to be cognizant of their needs and actually take care of them.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure why people get the idea that animals should survive in conditions so wildly different from their natural conditions, and why they continue to try to make it work.</text></comment>
<story><title>Honeybee clustering when it&apos;s cold is a distress behavior: study</title><url>https://theconversation.com/honeybees-cluster-together-when-its-cold-but-weve-been-completely-wrong-about-why-218066</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ChumpGPT</author><text>We would use thick Styrofoam insulation (2-3) inches thick and would insulate the entire hive with it. In the winter we would feed them occasionally with warm honey&amp;#x2F;sugar. The Hives were also protected by a row of thick Evergreens as a wind break. Maybe lost one or two hives over a decade. If your not wrapping them and preparing them for winter than you shouldn&amp;#x27;t have bees.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mrweasel</author><text>Modern Scandinavian beehives are normally made from Styropor, and about 30 - 40mm thick. The bees will still cluster. I do think you&amp;#x27;re on to something though, because losing only two hives over a decade is pretty impressive, regardless of your number of hives. A common issue is that the bee will cluster and move &amp;quot;the wrong way&amp;quot; in the hive, away from available food, and the get stuck in a corner and starve. It seems like the level of isolation you provide might be enough that the bees are more free to move around.</text></comment>