Mike from Lower Alabama,
	In all honesty, no one outside of small cell groups seems to
want the studies to succeed. If anyone provides such a study, it is torn
to shreds describing how it was done incorrectly, or whatever
short-comings the detractors wish to describe, however these same
detractors quote tests which were done very poorly to show why it
doesn't work. It's one of those no win situations.
	The test really is simply. Start a few (10 is good, more is much
better of course) small cell hives yourself. Join the OrganicBeekeeper
group, and learn how to do it properly throughout each phase of
regression. Don't dispair the moment it doesn't work for you the first
time of of chems, you will loose bees while you are regressing UNLESS
you buy already small cell bees, then you don't have to go through the
process of down sizing your bees. This dispair at initial losses is one
of the reasons quoted as why it doesn't work. It takes time, it take 2
years to regress, and it takes a total of 5 years to actually LEARN how
to keep bees the old fashioned ways, reading and following the bees
instead of pulling them on a leash at your whim. Bees have their own way
of doing things and relearning how bees follow the year is one of the
MOST IMPORTANT aspects of natural/small cell beekeeping.

I for one am obviously an advocate, and I think everyone knows this.
However what many people may not realize is that I do not use
foundation. Can you guess what the comb structure looks like? In the
center of the brood nest, the cells are the smallest as small as 4.6mm
in many cases. When the edges of the active brood nest is approached,
the cell sizes increase gradually. Then a snap in size to honey stores
with most drone brood occuring on the 2 or 3 transition frames between
total brood and total honey store combs. I also keep bees in top bar
hives, so the brood nest is in the front of the hive and the honey
stores toward the back.

There are small cell advocates willing to do the study. We are doing the
study by actually living it, and its working for us, we are growing in
numbers of small cell beekeepers and the numbers of our colonies.

I have about 380 active hives right now, all on a foundationless system.
I started the year with 500 packages, but had a VERY POOR VERY COLD
installation season. Freezing weather the day the packages were
installed for a minimum of 2 weeks, and a month of rain here in Iowa.

--
Scot McPherson
The McPherson Family Honey Farms
Davenport, Iowa USA

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