New study of if the mantle insulate bees from cold
“This new research indicates that rather than being benign, clustering is a survival behavior in response to an existential threat — resulting in increased stress due to cold and exertion. Some honeybees may even eat their own young to survive.”
Mr. Mitchell, who also has a Physics BSc, Microelectronics MSc and worked in spacecraft ground control software, said he believed misconceptions around clustering had, in part, arisen because the creatures’ overwintering behavior was dominated by observations in thin (19mm) wooden hives, with very different thermal properties to their natural habitat of thick-walled (150mm) tree hollows.
He said those long-held beliefs have encouraged enforced clustering, by beekeepers’ dominant use of what he labels “inadequately insulated hives” and, in North America, refrigeration. This is often seen as a benign or even a necessary process, with beekeeping and academic research considering these conditions of extreme heat loss as natural and normal.
He is calling for changes in practice to be urgently considered, researched, and promoted, as well as further debate on the ethical treatment of honeybees and insects.
Comments
Post a Comment