Just meandering a little about nature and cell-size. The picture I have is
that the central sphere of the brood chamber will be smaller cells/worker
brood size. The cells toward the edges will be larger and the largest will
be drone cells. If one wants to put a foundationless frame and be confident
that it will be drawn to worker cell size, it is best to plunge it directly
into the center of the brood nest, hopefully when there is a honey flow on.
The bees apparently build what they need at the time.

And in the position that creates a harmonious nest.

     I've read that drones are found on the outside of the brood nest, in
part because they require a maturation area that is a little cooler. As the
season ends these cells are back filled with stores. Could the larger cells
be more efficient for storage?

 

If we take the position that, "what's natural is right," it is obvious that
using any size foundation is unnatural. It could be that since natural comb
contains more drone cells, that limiting the number of these gentlemen with
prepared foundation is detrimental to the apiary. Marla Spivak noted that it
takes 50 drones in the air for one queen. I don't know how this was
determined but many drones, besides assuring a quantity of sperm, could have
other effects.

 

The first book I ever read about bees was "City of the Bees", (65 years
ago). I remember a fable in it about the queen, flying higher and higher
until only the strongest would be left to mate. Certainly there is a little
truth in it; I wouldn't defend it further.  It does seem that the more
drones, from a variety of sources, the better. How would reducing the raw
number of drones affect things? How would one test for this? I don't know.
Would there be any genetic diversity within the population of drones from
the same queen? I don't think so but intuition nudges me to think about
this.

 

It's worth pointing out that one bee that is affected by varroa mites seems
to handle them by somehow limiting them to the drone cells. (Dorsata?)

 

Dick Marron

 

 


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