> the research of Dr. Elbert Jaycox sums the situation correctly. Bees are capable of drawing cell size approx 17% smaller or larger than their size.

I find nothing on cell size by Jaycox, but both Seeley and Taber have written extensively on the cell size of bees built naturally without foundation. 

I question the idea that bees could build cells 17% smaller than they are. How would a bee fit inside a cell 4.3 mm wide to build it? The thorax of the European honey bee is about 4 mm. 

My experience is that colonies of European bees generally refuse to build small cell comb, because it's too small at 4.9 mm, which is only 6% smaller than normal worker cells. 

On the other hand, normal drone cells are 25% bigger than normal worker cells, and we know bees can make much bigger cells than this. 

Taber placed the maximum natural variation between cell sizes at 3.5%

Allen wrote:

smaller cells are harder to extract and that is one reason that 
the foundation manufacturers moved to slightly above the 5.1 to 5.2 mm 
sweet spot for brood rearing cells, since the combs were designed to be 
used for brood and/or extracting.

The idea that 5.2 is "large" is beyond me. Taber found natural cells average 5.2 mm and concluded that standard foundation was too small.

He states:
... our figures do indicate that the
foundation manufactured for the construction
of new combs in hives does not have the correct
dimensions. For example, Grout (1963) suggested
857 and 520 cells per dm2 as a standard
for worker and drone comb, respectively. Our
measurements, converted to square decimeters,
were 813.8 and 540 respectively, that is, the
worker brood cells suggested by Grout are
smaller and the drone cells are larger than
needed.

Taber III, S., & Owens, C. D. (1970). Colony founding and initial nest design of honey bees, Apis mellifera L. Animal Behaviour, 18, 625-632.

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