Small vs Larger Bees

**Solomon Parker** · 10-20-2011, 05:21 PM

Where's the cutoff line between the south and say Missouri? She didn't draw the states in. I'm in there somewhere.

**Oldtimer** · 10-20-2011, 07:08 PM

I wouldn't get too worried about a cutoff line. Many things have an influence, be better to look at it as areas merging and blending. The info on that map is not correct for my country, for a start.

**Barry** · 10-20-2011, 07:12 PM

I believe Lusby's arrived at their numbers from reading [old] literature. Any idea where they would have gotten the size for your area?

**Oldtimer** · 10-20-2011, 07:33 PM

Me or Sol?

If me, I don't know where they got it from. However, she does say right below the map "Cell sizes are recorded in general for zones, and where altitude and higher latitude occur, use Humbolt’s Law for deviations", so that's allowing some leeway.

She also says "Special Note: After studying correlations, we believe brood 4.9 mm cell size could be the upper limit for cell size control for mites worldwide".
Interesting comment. That means according to her, my 5.00 mm comb won't work.

**Barry** · 10-20-2011, 07:43 PM

Yea, you.

I think what she means in that last comment is that 4.9 will work in all areas worldwide, but if the map shows a bigger cell size, that will work as well.

How are your smaller cell bees coming along?

**Oldtimer** · 10-20-2011, 08:11 PM

They are coming out of the winter the hive is not as strong as the others but it didn't go into the winter very strong either. It literally got down to a fistful of bees at one point. However it's a mostly carni queen and just started showing that explosive carni spring buildup in the last few weeks, it wintered in one box but has now filled it & beginning a second box added.
Did a drone brood sample of maybe 100 or so larvae just a few days ago, couldn't find any varroa.

I recently contacted the guys that made the sc foundation, they have around 80 sheets left and no plans to make any more. So I bought all of it. Once the bees are ready I'll split the hive into 5, which will end up with 2 brood boxes each, and due to lack of foundation, will have to do natural cell for the honey boxes. Don't want to use normal foundation for the honey boxes because I don't want any chemical contamination. The sc foundation I bought was organic.

They will be in their own yard with no other hives, and we'll see what happens.

**jim lyon** · 10-21-2011, 05:45 AM

Originally Posted by Solomon Parker

Where's the cutoff line between the south and say Missouri? She didn't draw the states in. I'm in there somewhere.

Just dont try some sort of Missouri Compromise we fought a war over that one already. Actually the simplest indicator is the use of the word (words?) y'all or y'alls.

**Michael Bush** · 10-22-2011, 12:55 PM

>It seems that you say that the queen stays the same size even with smaller than
normal comb sizes.

That is my observation.

>It's just the workers and drones that get smaller.

Yes. The queen has a "oversized" cell and grows to whatever potential she can. The drones and workers totally fill the cell and their size is controlled by the limits of the cell.

>If so that would
be better than I could have imagined. This would allow one to see the queen even
easier than before even if she's not marked as a result of the increased size differences.

I wouldn't count on it.

Better to depend on how the bees around her move and how she moves.

**Lost Bee** · 10-31-2011, 07:44 PM

Hey Mr. Bush,

If I use less diluted honey will it make a smaller bee when I squeeze the drones
to collect the semen? Like you mentioned in my queen thread. How much should
I use?