Todd asked:
Are there any known strains/races which are naturally smaller and produce
smaller cell sizes?

 Apis florea builds the smallest cells of honey bees ( 1375
cells/decimeter),Apis cerana  the second smallest ( 1243 cells/ decimeter)
and then apis scutellata m.( 1000 cells/ decimeter).

Apis cerana and Apis mellifera are two species of bees which are closely
related to each other but can not cross.

Quite a bit of honey is produced by cerana bees in China in modern hives.
Over a million hives I have been told.

I once suggested an introduction of cerana might be an answer to our varroa
problem years ago on BEE-L but my idea was put down by all!

If a smaller bee is better 49'ers why not cerana?

Cerana was the original (and still is ) host of varroa but they get along
quite nicely as varroa NEVER has been known to reproduce in cerana worker
brood for unknown reasons.

I must remind the list!

We really do not know why varroa also prefers drone brood.

Cell size has been presented as a reason for years but a difference in
juvenile growth hormone could just as easily be the reason or a yet
undiscovered reason.

We still have got many questions to be answered about varroa.

Remember the story I told years ago on BEE-L of being shown a oblong varroa
under a microscope years ago by our state bee inspector ( Missouri State
Beekeepers meeting in the late 1980's)and asking why the varroa on the slide
was not round like the picture in the book of varroa j..

I still remember the look on the bee inspectors face like "must you question
everything ?"

"Beltsville sent me this here varroa sample so it must be a varroa j.
regardless if it looks like the picture or not!" was the reply.

I actually found a front and back varroa picture later one winter night
reading old American Bee Journals of varroa j. & the other a varroa d..

Missouri beekeepers reading this post remember my pointing out the
difference in the varroa on the slide and the picture in the book and also
my showing the ABJ pictures of varroa at a later meeting..

Bob

"What we do not know is so vast that it makes what we do know seem absurd"

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