Hello All,

Allen talking to Dee:
....keep a watch on him and make sure he stays on the path

The other night Dee & I discussed my project while the list slept. I was
sitting at the computer in the middle of the night when an email from Dee
came in. Was almost like we were in a chat room.
She offered to let me come for a visit (again)  and her help with small cell
questions. I suspect in the future both might happen.

Joe said:
.>If I understand correctly, Bob is planning to insert 2 frames of small
cell in the broodnest.

This is the method used by several on the net and claim when done( when a
flow is on) the bees downsize correctly right away. Dennis M. says I need a
minimum of four small cell frames in the brood nest to see results others
see with small cell. Another source says 6. If you run your bees in two
deeps then you would need 8 or 12. The outside frames which for the most
part hold honey most of the year can be large cell according to those
beekeepers.

The idea is too get the comb drawn correctly in one downsize. We shall see.
A beekeeper in Oklahoma send me an email saying he got his small cell
downsized the first time by getting drawn in 5 frame nucs!

Dee's recommendation was to use the fully drawn small cell ( which was not
available until the last year) and I agreed to test some frames of those
also.

>At minimum, small cell is needed throughout the
broodnest.

The normal broodnest of bees or what they like to keep is around 4-5 frames
of brood. In Florida when I kept bees the bees always dropped back to four
of five frames of brood unless we were pushing the bees to produce brood.

> Bob is off path right from the start.
I’m predicting 'total failure' with this experiment the way it is planed.

Now Joe that's not what you said last winter when I first told you of the
project.

What has changed? You also said you would go along with my results which I
thought you would as you know I would be honest.

Others ( some reading right now) on BEE-L said if my results were not
positive than the small cell beekeepers would reject the entire project.

 Dee Lusby knows I will be honest. I think its fair to say I am not testing
Dee's method of downsizing but Dennis Murrels.

Looking at the yards today I think I will have plenty of hives which could
spare a couple frames of brood right before the main honey flow. I was
afraid the bees would shut down during the last cold spell but did not
happen. Each had a real pollen patty and light syrup and kept raising brood
during our cold and rainy period.

bob


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