Questions on Cells

[Jojo]

First, in a feral beehive do they have consistent cell sizes?

Also, If you have feral beehive comb wired into the hinging frame(like these (http://www.beesource.com/plans/swarmframe.htm)), and you have 4.9mm wax foundation in the unused frames, wouldn't the bees (after a while) regress on their own?

thanks, JOJO

[Jojo]

Forgive my bad grammar. I will rewrite it.

Note: the new hive structure is a Langstroth Hive.

First, in a feral beehive do the bees have consistent cell sizes?

Also, if you have feral beehive comb wired to frames (like these (http://www.beesource.com/plans/swarmframe.htm)), and you have 4.9mm wax foundation in the unused frames, wouldn't the bees (after a while) regress on their own?

Thanks, JOJO

[Michael Bush]

>First, in a feral beehive do the bees have consistent cell sizes?

No. They vary greatly.

>Also, if you have feral beehive comb wired to frames (like these), and you have 4.9mm wax foundation in the unused frames, wouldn't the bees (after a while) regress on their own?

It's hard to say how regressed the feral bees were to start with. Some that I have are smaller than my 4.9mm bees to start with. Some are from a recent swarm from enlarged domestic bees and are quite large. If they are already noticably smaller than your domestic bees they are probably already regressed.

If they are not, it takes a long time for cells to fill up with cocoons enough to regress, and it takes several times of swarming for enlarged domestic bees to get regressed naturally. But they will eventually get regressed if they live that long.