Does any one know what the normal operating 'body' temperature of bees is?
Regards,
Karol
I've wondered about the so called 'Heater bees' oft called superbees (nowt to do with norton ).normal operating 'body' temperature
That depends on what you mean by 'normal'. There is a wide range (biologically speaking for a complex organism).
They are usually OK above a little more than 8 degrees Celsius. Not normal operating temperature, but the minimum (below which they would fall away from the winter cluster and die (cooled even more!)). Clustering is a normal 'mode of life' for long periods of the lifetime of some bees, however.
Apart from that they will be a few degress above ambient, depending on the activity at the time.
There are reports of 'heater bees' somewhere on the net. They must operate at quite an elevated temperature compared to the normal brood nest. Apart from that 40 degrees is not uncommon in some areas where bees live, so I would think the upper temperature is going to be towards, 50 degrees, where denaturing of enzymes/proteins becomes a life threatening factor as, well as dehydration.
So I would say it varies from about 8 to about 50 degrees Celsius?
Regards, RAB
There's a good summary regarding heater bees here: www.lancashirebeekeepers.org.uk/documents/heater_bees.html
taken from Tautz's book.
Cazza
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