I just got a call from Theo Fredericks.  Theo keeps bees on Vancouver
Island, but worked as a boy in an all-skep operation in Germany and
maintains his contacts there.  He visits Germany periodically and sometimes
is a speaker at some of their conventions.  (He was president of the BC
beekeepers a while back).

Remembering that he worked with bees on natural comb as a boy, I thought he
would have access to skep cell measurements, so I called him when I was
looking at bees in Arizona.  I asked what he knew about European cell sizes
on natural comb.  He has followed this up and asked a number of his
acquaintances and authorities in Germany and Holland.  He remembers, and
also was told, that according to their measurements over time that the
heather bee, A.m.m makes cells averaging 5.37mm, Carnica: 5.51 and what
they call the Italian: 5.27mm.  I report this for what it is worth.

Also, as a follow-up on Joe and Oene's 4.9 experiment, Joe now reports that
the bees have made a mess of the 4.9 foundation and, although they built
some 4.9 cells, they then proceeded to build 'normal' sized cells on the
rest of it.  I hope to have some pictures soon.

allen
http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/Diary/