From: Barry Birkey <barry@birkey.com>
Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002 13:12:41 -0500
To: BioBee List <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: Do Bees Want Various Size Cells

> But I also believe bees on entirely one cell size, 4.9 in our case I
> would say, is easier to handle for many reasons. and signs from Bornholm and
> Lusbys indicate that bees on one cell size prefer this one cell size also for
> honey storage.

Hello Erik -

I have been giving this much thought lately. As you know, I have not had
much success getting my existing 4.9 bees to draw full sheets of uniform 4.9
cells. This has caused me to think what the possible reasons might be.

If we need to be getting frames of small cell comb into the hive, but when
offered to existing hives they do their own thing and go bigger, this
becomes a rather large headache. Most do not have unlimited time and
resources to keep cycling foundation through the hive that must get pulled
out due to the "incorrect" cell size. This leads me to ask, is it really the
incorrect size for my bees? There really hasn't been any trials done where
bees that have been regressed down have been allowed to build their own
cells without a foundation imprint to see what they do, especially in a
northern climate that offers a very different season from the south.

Here is a photo of how my bees did on a piece of plastic that was in the
broodnest.

http://www.bee-l.com/biobeefiles/4.9plastic/plastic_birkey3.htm
(Dave C. note: the "V" pattern with transition cells. Anymore input on this
characteristic?)

This is also typical of some wax foundation. They increased the cell size in
this case to 5.2 mm and treated it as brood comb. To be totally honest here,
these bees came from the Lusby's so they were already sized on 4.9. Could it
be genetics? These bees have superceded several times so their genetic
constitution is now different. Our seasons here are very different than the
Southwest, so this also plays into the picture. I just assumed, perhaps
wrongly, that once bees were on the smaller cell size that they would
maintain that size.

I have seen just the opposite regarding bees wanting one cell size. For
honey storage, the bees want to go bigger, even in the broodnest. So far,
the only way for me to get frames of well drawn 4.9 has been to use swarms
on wax 4.9, and even then, they will only do it so long before going bigger.

Regards,
Barry