[JS Abbott]

Ok, I'm terribly afraid this is going to come accross as a totally stupid question, but I can't seem to logically work it out in my mind, so I'm reaching out for help on this...

If I were to purchase a package of bees that I wanted regressed, I would put them on 4.9mm foundation. After they drew it out, I would replace the foundation again, to get foundation actually drawn at the 4.9mm cell size. Now, I have a nice, regressed hive. What if I choose to re-queen? If I purchase a new queen, do I have to "re-regress" Or will she just lay on the small cells and life will process as normal?

Thanks in advance for your insight!

 

[BeeCurious]

JS,

My bees are small cell. You should really take the time to search the site and read some of the past posts. One thing you might like is Mannlake's pf-120's.

 

[franktrujillo]

if you put 4.9 foundation in the will build 4.9 cells.I have natural honey comb(foundationless).

 

[BeeCurious]

... But first, go to Michael Bush's website:

http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm

He's the guy with over 32,000 postings, mostly answers, comments, or advice.

With the pf-120's you can scrape off misformed cells and reuse it if you need to.

 

[AR Beekeeper]

My experience is limited to having 20 colonies on small cell for three years. Regressing is not as easy as it is stated to be on these forums. Requeening is not as easy as the new queens do not like to lay in the smaller cells and I prefer not to waste three weeks to a month waiting for a queen to be forced into laying or to be superseded because she will not lay. It does not improve varroa control, neither are the colonies healther than colonies on standard size cell. This year I have changed all but four colonies back to 5.2 Pierco comb.

Having voiced my opinion, if you do regress my recommendation would be the small cell plastic foundation, use a good hygienic line of queens and always allow the colony to supersede the queen.

 

[beedeetee]

if you put 4.9 foundation in the will build 4.9 cells.

Mine didn't. After 1.5 cases of small cell foundation I don't think that I got one 4.9 cell. I still have half a case of foundation. The drawn comb went through the solar wax melter. I still have a few frames left in the hives. I put my Jenter case in one of the small cell frames since she won't be laying in that frame much anyway.

 

[franktrujillo]

why are you trying to regress your bees.if its for you to go foundationless just swap out one frame at a time till no more frames.

 

[Michael Bush]

I've never had issues with the PF120s and PF100s. They draw them perfectly all the time. I've only seen one queen who wouldn't lay in the small cell and they superseded her pretty quickly. She was VERY fat.

 

[JS Abbott]

Thanks to all for your answers. I actually trying to find out if a queen would lay on the small cell or if somehow she had to be regressed too. But it seems that shouldn't be a problem.

I did try putting in some foundationless frames with my regular sized drawn foundation, but they were drawing them out at the same cell size, it seemed, not drawing it out with smaller cells. Maybe I did something else wrong?

 

[Michael Bush]

Things that affect cell size
o Worker intention for the comb at the time it was drawn:
o Drone brood
o Worker brood
o Honey storage
o The size of the bees drawing the comb
o The spacing of the top bars

The intention changes throughout the year as they go from building up to storing honey...