> I submit the above as positive proof the beekeeping world was getting ready
> to enlarge cell size in 1931...

This is not the question for which we have demanded proof.

We all know that in the last century, manufacturers have made foundation with
unnaturally large cells for various reasons and continue to do so today.  A
range of sizes are made for various purposes.

Some was made and promoted as brood comb, some is made as strictly for honey
storage comb, and some is made as drone comb foundation.

Manufacturers make any size they think they can sell.  As you know Dadant
recently saw a demand for 4.9 and will make it.  This makes sense, seeing as
more and more AHB will be found in commercial colonies in the Americas and maybe
they want to export to Africa too.  They also are getting demand from people who
want to try running European bees on AHB-size comb, the latest beekeeping fad.
For some reason there are people who want to force bees to do things they would
not do naturally; making them develop in cells that are too large or too small
seems to be a popular perversion.

In the 20th century, beekeepers imaginations were fired by the idea of slightly
enlarging comb to allow individual bees raised in them to be larger.  Some
experiments seemed to prove this possible, although I still doubt their rigour.
Any increases in size reported were not very significant IMO, being in the order
of a few percent. Anyhow, there is no reasoning with a fad.  Recently, the trend
reversed, as all trends do eventually, and now the fad is to try to use
artificially small foundation.

As we all know and can see by reading the pages referenced in previous posts,
foundation is commercially available in sizes ranging from 4.9 to 5.7 mm in the
parts of the world that this list covers, and I daresay that there are other
sizes commercially available in parts of the world that are not English speaking
or well connected to the internet.

If you must prove something, please prove what we have asked you to prove, not
something that we already know.

We have asked you to prove that bees have been increased in size significantly
during the 20th century by use of artificially large foundation and that they
will return to a size around 5.0 mm within a few generations if left to their
own devices.  Our evidence denies this, and indicates that the natural cell size
is in the 5.2 to 5.3 mm range for most domestic bees in America and Europe.

allen
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