Gerry Visel wrote.
>
>   Comments from the list on small bees??
 
>
>On Thu, 31 Oct 1996 21:15:21 -0600 Doug Henry <[log in to unmask]>
>writes:
>>
>>During discussions with other beekeepers at the show I was told that
>>continued use of the same brood chambers over a prolonged period of
>>use
>>would lead to smaller bees. The theory being that brood cells become
>>smaller due to scale or other residue left behind thereby curtailing
 
I apologise for the lateness of this reply, but I am behind with my mail.
Some years ago I bought out a bee yard, the property of a cheep keeper who
didn't agree to changing comb on a regular basis. The boxes were jammed
solid with propolis, so, I decided to bring the bees up into new boxes and
new comb.
        I had limited drawn so we had to interleave, one drawn one
foundation to fill new boxes. Once the queen came up we placed a queen
excluder above the old box to keep her up. Eventually we removed the old
bottom boxes. At that point we had bees from the old box and new bees from
the new boxes. Believe it or not, we could see the difference in bee size.
Without hesitation, the cells get smaller, and so do the bees. That yard we
bought out now produces far more now than it did before!!
        We try hard to exchange comb on a regular basis. We use the same
colour markers as our queen colours to help gauge the year it was introduced.
 
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