Hi Bob,

>> Given the time and risk of downsizing through 5.1mm to get to
>> 4.9mm, is there a reason you chose not to include a number of
>> test colonies on 4.9m Supercall?

> I don't care for fully drawn plastic. My reason is basically I consider
> fully drawn problematic long term for a number of reasons. Second I believe
> (as does Tom Seeley) that taking a brood nest of bees and placing  nine
> sheets of plastic every inch and a half is not the way nature intended  and
> bad enough. Fully drawn is way too much plastic for me. Tom has some
> interesting experiments he has ran concerning plastic foundation & frames.

Is it possible you could have your cake and eat it too?

Supercell will force regression in one step, and after a few generations you can introduce the small cell wax to be drawn out at 4.9mm. This should be faster than going through regression and two cycles of drawn cell and seems feasible in a single season. That would give you wax for wintering over.

It certainly complicates matters, you have to be all-Supercell in the brood boxes otherwise the bees will ignore them in favor of wax. On the plus side since your bees follow the flows they are in a comb-rearing mood much of the year so drawing wax after regressing seems feasible.

I have no idea how feasible it is to pursue this idea, it is definitely easier to kibitz than implement....

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