I have been looking at some of the information you posted here and had a couple of questions. Is the compatibility with wood boxes the only reason you prefer the beemax or are there any other reasons. And you can really winter 5 frames without feeding? Seems amazing.
I wouldn't say it is the only reason, though a big reason. I think the cost plays a part as well as the bee space. I have zero issues with burr comb and the removable frame rests make cleaning easier. Don't know if I can articulate all the reasons, but they just work the best for me. As for nucs, the beemax provides the best insulation, my experiments show over 80F delta to ambient while the Lyson is a little over half of that. I haven't had a chance to test the paradise yet, but I don't think they will come anywhere close either. Yes, I can overwinter 5 frame nucs without feeding.
I like the idea that winter clustering may be an abnormality of putting bees in thin wood boxes and that it stresses them. It certainly makes managing food stores difficult both for the bees and the beekeeper. How does this fit with the notion of many beekeepers (I think Michael Palmer is one of them) that the bees need to be clustered or at least inactive to reduce food consumption?
I can't speak for particular individuals, but I believe a good portion of "theories" are based upon justifying one's methods. A lot of theories seem to have promise based upon what we want the outcome to be. Screen bottom boards is a great example. Sounds so good that varroa fall through and can't get back into the hive, right? This all predicates on fall off rate of mites being significant, which I have yet to find anyone providing proof of. Yet millions of people have, at one time, bought into screened bottom boards as beneficial for varroa control. Fortunately, many folks are going back to solid bottoms.
It would make sense if honeybee hibernated when they went into cluster, but they don't. To me it simply comes down to honey is used to create heat. If the bees can retain the heat in the hive, they burn less honey keeping warm. Bees don't eat just to eat and do not get fat like we humans who will sit around and eat more calories than we burn. The simplest analogy is your home. The better it is insulated the less heating oil you will burn. Honey is the fuel used to keep them warm.
We need to start understanding what feral bees do, not what beekeepers have been doing for the last century.
The link to the pdf of the constructive beekeeping in the worldwide beekeeping form doesn't work. And is there anywhere to get full access to the Derek Mitchell paper.
I'm happy to see someone is actually doing some studies. I have always thought that hive bodies needed more insulation but I don't have the time or inclination to study it myself.
I fixed the link to constructive beekeeping ->
https://beevac.com/photos/albums/userpics/10001/Ed_Clark_-_Constructive_Beekeeping.pdfMitchell PDF ->
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=forums&srcid=MTQ1OTYwMzIwNzQ2NzIzNDE4MDcBMDc3NDA4MjkyOTA0MTMzNTYzMDUBUjE0WWxzVU9BZ0FKATAuMS4xAQF2Mg&authuser=0