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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
P-O Gustafsson <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 23 Sep 2001 12:38:31 +0200
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Barry Sergeant wrote:

> 3. All my colonies are started on strip foundation. I have just measured
> worker brood cells near the bottom of brood frames, that is, cells
> furthest from the foundation strip. These "natural" cells range between
> 4.878 and 4.762mm.
>

Hi Barry,

I might be all wrong about this, when I have very limited experience of Scutellata bees.
It's from a visit in the south of Africa (Mocambique) some years ago. I found the Scutellata bees to
be smaller than the European bees. My estimation was around 10% difference in size. This also
affected the behaviour of the bees; they were much quicker. One example of this was the absence of
landing board on the hives. The bees were flying straight in and out of the entrance at a speed you
hardly saw them.

So from my point of view it seems logic that they make smaller cells to fit their body size. If I
compare with the 5,3 mm we are using here, 10% less will be what you have.

--
Regards

P-O Gustafsson, Sweden
[log in to unmask]  http://www.algonet.se/~beeman/

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