Dee Lusby wrote:
>,,,in chewing out are you seeing any pattern as to layout
>within your colonies, especially if they could be setup
>with housel positioning, with drone and larger culled to
>the periferies and smaller/more uniform to the center of
>the broodnest?

Concerning housel now, with my personal observations of feral nest 
construction ‘in protected enclosures‘.  I will generally see a center 
comb develop with a horizontal cell type construction.  But looking at the 
many feral nests I have inspected, the rest of the combs built in voids 
will have cells will be positioned vertically and in an arrangement that  
I can only describe as a haphazard cell comb orientation.  

Years back when I first entered this new world of progressive internet 
beekeeping,  the question was ‘how to cross check the information?’  I 
decided it would be best to crosscheck everything by looking for it in the 
local ferals.  In knowing that the ferals will have developed the 
necessary traits and behaviors essential and best suited for survival in 
my environment, this is the rule I follow. 

Local ferals give me clues as to what traits may be lacking in my bees and 
give me the direction, but also the ability to independently verify all 
information as to what is best for the bees in my local environment, and 
this practice has not failed me yet.  The local ferals are my partners and 
also my competitors, so I like to keep track of want my competitors are 
doing, lest they come up with a good idea I haven’t thought of.  My 
philosophy is that “it must exist in the fearls in my location for me to 
adopt it“.  Small cell sizes I am seeing in the thriving ferals population 
here which indicate to me the direction to go,  and upper end small cell 
sizes I do see towards the outside, but still not seeing verification that 
housel existing in feral nest construction in ‘voids’.  Which ‘by rule of 
the feral’ is telling me is not essential for what is best for honeybees 
living in my environment.  I’m not saying housel does not exist in open 
air nests or in other areas, it’s just not being observed by me in nests 
found in closed spaces of feral colonies in my area, still looking though.


> Are periferies more attractive to mites with larger cells
>laidout/culled to there; also with more slightly cooler in
>hive temps, that then might make the bees chew out there
>first, thus being maybe a more reproductive zone to watch
>closer? If they, the bees can keep these spots in tact and
>under control with first reactions there, then could mites
>be kept away by the bees from the core of the working
>broodnest for better control during active year? 

Being on small cell, I am not having any mites infesting worker brood 
until drone rearing ceases.  At this time most mites are phoretic and  are 
pressed for time and less choosey needing to find uncapped cells of a 
specific age,  but the time in the phoretic stage increases the risk to 
the female varroa.  Varroa on average spend about 7 days in the phoretic 
stage before entering a cell.  And at this time, they must find a worker 
cell to invade at the age of  about 5.5 days or between 30 and 60 hours 
prior to capping.  This correlates to what I am seeing in that varroa 
invading of worker cells during the fall is highly dependant on where the 
proper aged larva happen to exist, and not so much dependant on the size 
of the cell she chooses to invade.  So if larva of the proper age happen 
to be in the core, she will enter those cells, ‘<from what I am seeing in 
my bees>’.  

Joe Waggle 
Ecologicalbeekeeping.com 
‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries' 
Feral Bee Project:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/ 

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