From: Erik Osterlund <honeybee@elgon.se>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 10:40:47 +0100
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@egroups.com
Subject: Re: cell size in supers

Dear friends

I have a beekeeper friend that has worked on Tasmania with a big
commercial beekeeper. he told me they seldom renewed comb and that they had
combs many decades old, totally black in appearance and hard so you could
stand on them. he was told that after 30 years the bees tore them down and
renewed them. This renewing behaviour then seems to be different in
different stock maybe, and under different circumstances. In a hive a
colony is certainly not in natural circumstances. I have myself had some
hives with 10-15 years old frames black in appearance, well used by the
bees. It was from such colonies I got the best 4,8 foundations drawn when I
gave such to a number of colonies just directly. From the beginning the
cell size was 5.3 mm in those old combs. But as you mention below, the rim
is much thicker and gives a thicker appearance of the cell wall then it
actually is a bit below the rim.

Erik