Effects of hive entrance orientation on honey bee colony activity

In an effort to determine the effects of the orientation of hive entrance on honey bee colony activity and temperature, hives were placed facing different cardinal directions (3-5 hives per direction). Hive weight was recorded every 5 minutes and temperature every 30 minutes from April 2019 to June 2020. Daily weight data were analyzed using piecewise regression. In southern Arizona from December to March, hives facing east started daily flight activity 50 minutes earlier than hives facing west, and ended flight activity 57 minutes earlier than hives facing south. During that period east-facing hives also lost only 62 g per d while north-facing hives lost about 100 g per d. East-facing hives were also about 7°C cooler on average than west-facing hives, although that may have been due to the movement of bee clusters within the hive. From December to March hives facing east also had significantly lower morning weight loss due to departing foragers than hives facing north (indicating more ..., On 1 April 2019, 20 mature bee colonies (at least one year old) were identified in an apiary north of Tucson, Arizona, USA (Latitude: 32.55°; Longitude: -111.35°). All hives were queen right with no visible signs of disease. Each hive contained a minimum of 1 kg honey bees in 1-2 painted, 10-frame, wooden Langstroth boxes (43.7 l capacity) (Mann Lake Ltd., Hackensack, MN) with migratory wooden lids. Hives were placed on stainless steel electronic scales (Tekfa model B-2418 and Avery Weigh-Tronix model BSAO1824-200) (max. capacity: 100 kg, precision: ±20g) and linked to 16-bit dataloggers (Hobo UX120-006M External Channel datalogger, Onset Computer Corporation, Bourne, MA) with weight recorded every 5 minutes. A temperature sensor (iButton Thermochron, precision ±0.06°C) enclosed in plastic tissue embedding cassettes (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA) was stapled under the center of the top bar on the 5th frame in the bottom box of each hive and set to record every 30 min. Hives wer..., Missing values are entered as -999. 
Hive weights are in kg.
Hive temperatures are in degrees Celsius.
Brood surface area is in square centimeters.