> But I've already done it using clean large cell comb, small cell comb and
> natural comb. Worker cell size ranged from about 4.6mm to 5.4mm. Natural
> comb had the full range of sizes. See:
>
> http://bwrangler.farvista.net/sunr.htm
>
> The results have been reported here. I think, such a test would only
> benefit a few individuals, if any. Most would need to do it and should
> 'prove' it for themselves.
As Bob said, for scientific recognition, results need to be replicated, and
more than once, and by unrelated parties without an agenda, before they can
be assumed to apply, especially universally. Those of us who have worked in
lab are acutely aware of how many ways an experiment can give misleading
results, often several times in a row, if some apparently insignificant
factor is assumed--or neglected.
Moreover, in regard your claims, I am not at all convinced of several
things. One is that you designed and carried out experiments which
adequately isolated and tested specific claims and assumptions, and the
second is that, although my memory is far from perfect, it seems to me that,
at various times, your websites claimed various things that seem to me to
have changed periodically, and now appear to me to have been altered in
hindsight, or deleted. I'd have to look up and study the various iterations
of your site that I have archived over the years and compare to put my
finger on where these discontinuities appear. Maybe you could restore old
periodic backups to a folder somewhere on your site so that people could
examine your progress?
> I think there's one factor that most beekeepers, here, just don't
> understand. And that's the different focus those who have experienced the
> successes of small cell have, versus the focus of those who are still
> struggling with mites and the effects of treatments...
We examine all claims and all evidence that is presented, and what we do
notice is, and makes us cautious is 1.) attitude, and 2.)reluctance or
downright refusal to provide or subject claims to scientific proof. This is
university-sponsored list, and although a wide range of hypothetical and
speculative discussion is not out of order, the list owes some fealty to
truth, and the need for valid proof. Anything lacking proof, and adequate,
tested proof, is an hypothesis and is rightly treated by members, or should
be treated, as such.
In regard cell size, bee strains, management techniques, devices of several
sorts, and chemicals of various toxicities, people are trying many
permutations and combinations with various degrees of control and rigour,
and reporting various levels of success. It seems that there are successes
and failures in virtually every group.
FWIW, I personally never lost a managed colony to varroa and I treated
*very* minimally. My combs were a hodge-podge of whatever I bought
second-hand plus newly drawn comb on various commercial foundations on the
market. I did, however, lose one test colony on natural comb. One out of
one = 100% loss.
One thing, Dennis, I'd like you to clarify in a sentence or two, if you
would be so kind, is how you consider yourself to be a "small cell"
beekeeper, assuming you do, since your bees build natural comb (which I
approve of by the way), and the cell sizes vary all over the map of known
sizes? Or did I get this wrong?
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