Question for Dee

[WiredForStereo]

Dee
I've read on a few websites about what you planned to do when you first started to regress your bees, you said a few things about no chemicals and from what I can read here, you have achieved that, but what I am more interested in, you said you would be making as much of a living with fewer hives, is this true? Do the bees produce more honey with regressed cell sizes?

[Hook]

I am not Dee, but it is my understanding, that the regressed bees will be healthier, because the mites will not kill them, plus with regressed bees, you will have alot more. Further, if you use unlimited brood management, the queen will not be hindered as to where she is able to lay eggs. So, no mited, more bees, more space.

[Michael Bush]

And there has been some research recently that small bees make more honey. I don't know if it is really significanly more, but it is not less. Probably this is due to two things. More efficiency at flying and more plants that are available. If you are smaller you can get into smaller flowers.

[Alfred]

Hi Michael, they’re other reason. Smaller cells means more bees per frame, Dee has at least 12% more bees per hive and they producing more honey, even if they are a little bit smaller than the bees from regular cells.

[Michael Bush]

I agree there are more bees per frame and with only two brood boxes you probably get more brood. With unlimited brood nests, I don't know if you would actually get more bees or not. Since many hives thrive and many do not with the same cell size, I think it would be hard to determine.

[Dee A. Lusby]

Hi all

Interesting reading your comments. Nice.

May I add a little bit here. Have been tied up lately as I make the run for embossing 10,000 sheets of 4.9mm foundation by 15 January 2003 to be ready for the new year.

First of all with every turn of the brood you average 20% more bees each 21 days, which is like a good extra 2 lb package every cycle on a major honey flow with unlimited broodnests of 3 deep boxes.

Yes, honey is not any less and good watching really needs to be done now to document how much more they will really make.

But one thing we have found out is that pollen trapping with 5 and 7 wire mesh used no longer hurts the bees (we use a centered 1/2 inch opening above entrance grate for pollen) leaving enough for the bees to use and build and store, rather then deplete and require forced artificial pollen feeding.

So we have pollen trapping and honey both.

Also the volume of propolis has gone up and more to the resin side, besides the propolis made from pollen grains.

Also, we are finding increase easier, which means we will soon add nucs for additional production, as we split off at the end of each season and at startups in spring for really strong colonies.

So far, everything is coming back together in a win-win situation with no mite or secondary infection problems.

Regards,

Dee A. Lusby