Mixing Cell size

[shylock3]

If my brood chamber is Natural cell, can I use a different size for my supers? I thought I read somewhere on here not to mix them.

[RonS]

Not sure what you mean by "natural" cell, but I will assume you mean small cell. I have HSC in two deeps on one hive. They only sell the frames for deeps. I will put standard cell Pierco frames in the supers. I don't know if it will work or cause problems as I am having a heck of a time getting them to fill out the HSC. I started them from a nuc with five fully drawn wooden frames. I imagine that this was quite confusing to the little engineers. I have to do an inspection soon and will see if it is now working. Been about a month.

I think the advice that you referenced related to mixing cell size in the brood chambers, not between the brood chambers and supers.

[Michael Bush]

>I thought I read somewhere on here not to mix them.

The only problem I see is if the queen decides to move up into the larger cells and lay, then you're trying to get the queen back down on the size you want.

[Gene Weitzel]

RonS:

I started out 6 hives on HSC this year. I did place one foundationless frame in the center. I have discovered that they will draw this frame out very quickly (this frame typically has mixed cell sizes, with SC mostly in the middle and graduating to drone cells on the edges), the queen will start laying in it first. Most of mine have then also filled both sides of the HSC frames on either side of the mixed cell frame and at least one side of the next HSC frame with solid brood within the first 10-14 days. I plan to slowly work in more foundationless frames and then work them out to the edges so that the center of the broodnest is all HSC with the outer edges being the natural "mixed cell" comb in the foundationless frames. One package I started this way on 4/14 is now in two deeps with the queen laying nearly edge to edge in the HSC. I will probably start supering them this weekend (course it helps that we have had an excellent flow, the chinese tallow is still going strong, devils walkingstick just started and we still have sumac coming up!). Most of what I have read about the "natural" broodnest says that they will draw a variety of cell sizes with the smallest being towards the center. I am trying to mimick a natural brood nest using the HSC only in the center of the broodnest, with the larger mixed cell frames toward the outer edges.

[denny]

Gene,......I tried your suggestion about putting foundationless frame between HSC frames, and it works quite well. I put a package of bees on a medium chamber of HSC (I cut the deeps to mediums), and when I inserted that foundationless frame they went right to building comb in it, ...nice comb, too, and I discovered that the queen went right ahead and layed in the adjacent HSC frames with no problems. I think I'll give them another foundationless frame and move the first one towards the outside once it's capped.
Very good suggestion,....thank you

I'm also feeding them 1:1 syrup and global patty, even though they're bringing in nectar & pollen, too. They are devouring the global patty, so I figure it can't hurt.

[shylock3]

I think MB answered my question, I have some supers with drawn comb I was going to put on top of my natural or small cell brood boxes. I guess if they were storing honey it wouldn't matter, but if the queen moved up and started to lay, that would make a big difference. thanks for your info, everyone.

[Dave W]

Natural cell (comb drawn without foundation) or Small Cell (foundation or whole frame) in brood chambers w/ Kelley's 7/11 foundation in honey supers is my choice.