hi,
your assumption has great probability to be the main reason for that
symptom "cold starvation" - to get their stores the bees just move their
cluster straight upwards perpendicularly
after some winters with this happening, this year I opened a hive at a
rather warm january day and could find this proved: one narrow line of
consumed content strictly upwards, amidst plenty of food at the flanks!
reason: to reach the honey the bees must open the cells, i. e. remove
the hard wax cover - to succeed they use the convective heat of their
cluster, which weakens the wax to a point where they are able to bite
and to remove it - the storings right and left of this path are of no use
personal consequence: arranging the winter hive in a chimney-like
position conforming the expected cluster size, garantying that all bees
are located at the bottom box - as my combs are covered with a
transparent plasic I can reassure (about january) if there are any
already on top - then I take untouched combs to form a new super (this
can be the now useless lowest one) and put this one on top - happened
this year with good result
we beekeepers must always have in mind that the natural bee swarms
survived in hollow tree stems, coupled with the physics of narrow rooms
cheers kauhl
(school english - please excuse!)
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