Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 23:21:37 -0800
From: "deelusbybeekeeper" <deelusbybeekeeper@excelonline.com>
Subject: Re: Queens relation to cell size


Hi to all on the Biological Beekeeping List

Helmut wrote below:

> Question.
> We talked about the cell size question as it appears in worker brood
> cells .I am still at odds with it although Dee relayed that 49 m/m
> should be the total length of 10 cells , that will make the individual
> cell smaller than 4.9 m/m. But this is not the original description of
> this method of measuring as it was explained in a sketch on the web site.
> I cannot find this page any more. It appears it was removed . I am
> looking for another one ever since.

Reply:

Helmut, I am sorry Barry changed the front page of his site, but I
understand he has to keep things current there and so rotates from time to
time. Also sorry Ed and my time was over there for awhile. The map can still be found in the SAGA and as for the measurements you seek they are still written there also.

Please see the following and see if it helps you. It should give you a lot
more detail and background and is originally where Barry got the information
from I believe:

http://www.beesource.com/pov/lusby/lusbyjun1997.htm

http://www.beesource.com/pov/lusby/part6.htm

> But today another question came about.
> I was extracting from a leftover super 10 frames of honey. The combs
> were newly built from this year and it looks that the measure is larger
> than in brood cell combs I have talked about in other posts.
> I have to measure those and will report.
> Do the storage cells in converted colonies larger than the Brood cells??

Reply:

Yes. You will find that there are two ranges of cells within each colony. One for worker brood and pollen mainly, and the other for drones and honey. This is how they are basically used by the bees.

Also they are drawnout differently, and at different times of the year by the bees also. Further, only when shortages occur of one or the other, does the queen cross the line by laying subcastes differently than originally designed for by the worker bees, relative to the active season.

Sincerely,

Dee A. Lusby
Tucson, Arizona, USA