> If anyone cares on this list go here:
> http://www.funpecrp.com.br/gmr/year2003/vol1-2/gmr0057_full_text.htm

Hey, thanks for that.  I noticed more hits on my cell size calculator at
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/misc/cellcount.htm and figured something
must be happening.  It is nice when people from special interest lists
bring reports back here to BEE-L.

Jeff Harris had mentioned a recent 'elegant study' that showed a
positrtive effect from smaller cells when he was in Edmonton recently,
but I had not gotten around to asking him what and where, so, I was
delighted to see the URL and went there directly to see what is offered.
However, having examined this study, I find it's deja vue all over
again. This study merely confirms what we already know, and still does
not answer the real question, and that is what happens if the mites have
no choice and are only on big cells or on small cells.

"...in our experimental colonies the mites could choose between small
Africanized comb cells, "medium-sized" Italian cells and large Carniolan
cells. They preferred the largest cells. The varroa females also chose
the largest cells in the study by Message and Gonçalves (1995); however,
in their colonies the mites only had a choice between small Africanized
cells and larger Italian comb cells."

The problem is that several sizes of cells were present at the same time
in each hive, so it is just as easy to conclude that that the mites just
seek out the largest cells in the hive and climb into them, as it is to
think that this proves somehow that smaller cells will result in lower
total infestation.    This has been the problem with previous tests
comparing cell size effects.

The authors say: "Varroa's preference for larger comb cells could be a
contributing factor to the 60% higher infestation rates of adult bees
that was found in apiary colonies, which contain both Italian- and
Africanized-sized comb, compared to feral Africanized colonies, with
only natural-sized Africanized comb, examined in the same region in
Brazil (Gonçalves et al., 1982).  It is too bad that they did not prove
that.

Additionally, the test was done with AHB which is naturally smaller than
EHB, so I wonder if the results can be applied to EHB and if so, if the
cells would be larger for EHB?  Nonetheless it is interesting and there
definitely are many things we don't understand.

At any rate, I'm not saying that small cells do not inhibit varroa
reproduction.  I'm just saying that, sadly, this study does not prove
it.

I think there is definitely something to this and that enlarged cells
are a bad idea.  I saw that in the results of our foundation experiment
where Pierco beat out the larger cell size foundations in first year
production.  I saw something when I went to visit Dee.

I'd sure like to see an experiment that proves colonies established and
operating on one size of cells beat out colonies on a different cell
size, without complicating things by having too many other variables.

allen
http://www.honeybeeworld.com

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