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Date: | Mon, 1 Sep 2008 09:34:56 -0400 |
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Waldemar:
For convenience, uniformity, and overall efficiency of my operation, I
made the cutout, keeping the queen, and no sooner did the brood hatch out
than I got rid of the messy and irregular combs, replacing it with Pierco
foundation, thus forcing them to regress/progress back to “regular”
(5.1mm?) size cells. I do not recall any particular problem in this
transition, done pretty much in one season, a sign of their tremendous
plasticity in changing environment.
I have also seen similar “tiny bees” under the root area of a blackjack at
the bottom of a pond on another occasion. I did not bother to “rescue”
these because they were scrawny, mangy, and small in number, indicating
the limited nest-cavity beneath the root system; I just told the homeowner
to leave them alone since they have not bothered anyone.
Probably the parent of the shoe-box colony must have been on a regular-
size comb kept by someone a long time ago albeit there has been no
beekeeper around since. Feeling a bit wiser these days, I would rather
introduce them directly onto regular combs or foundation and start feeding
them, rather than attaching the cutouts to either empty frames or Pierco,
when the temperature allows me to, for one has to eventually scrape off
irregular combs and start from scratch.
Yoon
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