Hi Carol & All,

> I get the impression that you cannot simply pop 10 frames of 4.9
foundation
> into a hive body, and expect that the bees will draw it out into 4.9
cells.
> Is this correct? What will they do to 4.9 foundation?
>
> What is the correct procedure to follow to get the bees to make 4.9 cells
on
> 4.9 foundation?
>



Since I keep bees in Alaska, (We have a very short season up here) I felt it
was beneficial for myself to start package bees that were born on small
cells. I pretty much started my small cell hives by hiving what I call small
cell package bees. I saved the transition period and firmly established my
next generation bees on small cells. They drew the foundation out nicely and
some of the cells were drawn as far down as 4.8mm, so 4.9mm is top tolerance
on the brood combs. This was done in one season.

I know this does not answer your question but Clay did a very good job of
doing that.

You also had a question in another post regarding the use of Caucasians as a
stock. The small cell package bees I used were from a Caucasian queen
producer and they seem good to me. I have been using Caucasians now for
about 5 years and I am very pleased with them. Before settling on Caucasians
I tried my hands on many different strains. For your area really I would try
to find a local queen producer and use them. Up here where I keep bees there
really is no local queen producers and most keepers order out. I settled on
Caucasians because over all they did the best for me in what I was trying to
do. Most beekeepers up here do not over-winter so wintering is not a
characteristic that is considered when deciding which strain to use, but it
is with me. I now produce some of my own queens and look to do more in the
future so I can acclimate my stock.
  .  ..
c(((([
Keith Malone
Chugiak, Alaska USA