In beekeeping, a winter cluster is a well-defined cluster of honey bees that forms inside a beehive when the air temperature dips below 54 to 57 °F (12 to 14 °C). Honey bees are but a few insects that survive the winter as a hive. As the outside air temperature decreases the winter cluster becomes tighter and more compact. The bees cling tightly together on the combs in the hive. The temperature within the winter cluster remains remarkably warm regardless of the outside air temperature. Larger clusters (basketball size) have a better chance for survival than smaller clusters (softball size). The winter cluster within the hive must move throughout the winter to reach the available honey stored in the combs.
Some die-off is expected during the winter. In extended cold weather periods, the incidence of Nosema disease increases and the cluster may weaken as many bees begin dying off.
Read more about Winter Cluster: Brood Nest
Famous quotes containing the words winter and/or cluster:
“In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts, whose windows and doors are half concealed, but from whose chimneys the smoke cheerfully ascends.... We enjoy now, not an Oriental, but a Boreal leisure, around warm stoves and fireplaces, and watch the shadow of motes in the sunbeams.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Next week Reagan will probably announce that American scientists have discovered that the entire U.S. agricultural surplus can be compacted into a giant tomato one thousand miles across, which will be suspended above the Kremlin from a cluster of U.S. satellites flying in geosynchronous orbit. At the first sign of trouble the satellites will drop the tomato on the Kremlin, drowning the fractious Muscovites in ketchup.”
—Alexander Cockburn (b. 1941)