Ed and Dee Lusby, and the small cell/ natural comb thing.

Statement: I heard a while back that if bees make their own comb, they will make it smaller. This makes it harder for mites to reproduce, and it is more natural for the bees. Apparently, Ed and Dee Lusby have done lots of research on this and find that 4.9mm cells are ideal for their bees. I was told to look on here for stuff about that, but all I can find is references to it.

Question: I was also told that the further north someone lives, the larger their bees are. I gave my bees some foundationless frames and they made drones so big that they could not fit through the entrance reducer so, I had to flip it over and scoot it out a bit. (This was July/August, the reducer was put in after a split and they were getting robbed.) Where can I find research on size of bees as compared to latitude?

http://www.beesource.com/point-of-view/ed-dee-lusby/

This is the link to the beesource point of view page for Ed and Dee Lusby.

Foundationless drones are supposed to sometimes be bigger than ones raised on foundation, and the workers smaller. However, I have no personal experience.


Nathan

Look on the thread started by Solomon about answering questions. Some good links there to find the information you want. Also, regarding small cell, post 30 in this thread was an interesting read. http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...doesn%27t+work

This thread was an interesting read

http://www.ent.uga.edu/bees/documents/m08138.pdf


BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

This article was the most intereseting to me. Some studies show positive effects with small cell and some don't. For me, the jury is out. I use foundation and hygenic queen bees. :)

I'm in Oshawa, a little more north, with natural cell bees.
They're way smaller than the local mutts they started out as; 20 - 30% smaller.
They've been through 3 generations of new comb; with each change, the cells and bees get smaller.
I think it would be hard to correlate latitude with bee size.
Mine make what they want, and they want it small.
No big varroa problem either.

I'm certainly no expert in this but I have around 15 to 20 hives using 4.9 cell size that have equally the same or some with even heavier mite loads than my larger 5.2 cell hives.

Charlie B I'm certainly not an expert either, but can your 4.9 bees handle the mite load or are they dieing?

My bees on 4.9 mm comb developed a fine mite infestation by late this summer. Not willing to give up on it, but benefit unproven to me so far. I treated with apiguard because you can't keep bees if they are dead. I could have let them crash and bred from the survivors but I think I will requeen with someone elses survivors this spring and see how that works.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sfisher

Charlie B I'm certainly not an expert either, but can your 4.9 bees handle the mite load or are they dieing?

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The mite dead outs are a little less with 4.9 but not enough to convince me that it's cell size that makes a difference. I finally had to treat with MAQS or I would have lost at least 10 hives, 4.9's included.