From: "Helmut,E. Garz" <hommes@olympus.net> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 21:49:15 -0000 To: BiologicalBeekeeping@egroups.com Subject: Re: A. m. m. and cell size I am still at loss about the issue of this reducing "Forcefully". As I said in my previous post , the bees are of varied origin and size but the cells are 5m/m or less . How come : ?????? I have not done anything to coax them into this pattern. And as I posted before , The cellsize is new to me since spring 2000. I used old cells of second hand equipment and off the shelf foundations. I never measured them until lately. Also I have the same problems as anyone else , except I did NOT lose any colonies to Varroa. To Tracheal , yes ( Ignorance / swarm ) That does not mean Varroa are not present . It also means I treated chemically ( Fluvalinate as well as coumaphose for the last time last fall to check the infestation) The bees built combs to the same size on strips or foundations One cannot force the insect to build worker comb cells and stuff dronebrood into it any more than the other way around at any given size of foundation. There is this ratio Dee quoted irrespective of man's wishful thinking. Additionally , whatever "Haplo" type is discovered is useless to me unless one of those eats the other. At the last meeting we had the opportuniy to view a mite under a microscope with a battered top, picked by a bee or dropped off onto the sticky board( hygenic bee by selective breeding). Happy beeing Helmut