From: Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>

>There was a difference in varroa infestation based on cell size, but it was far less than the very large difference based on comb age.

I believe that to be a misreading of the data.  First, I'm not sure why anyone would want to start a discussion about a specific study without providing a link to the study...in this case it's free :)

http://www.apidologie.org/index.php?option=article&access=standard&Itemid=129&url=/articles/apido/abs/2004/04/M4012/M4012.html

One must also be aware that this study is looking specifically at AHB, and that of the cell sizes looked at in this study, what is generally considered "Small Cell" is the LARGEST...the cell sizes range from 4.51-4.9.

Now, look at Table 2:
Note that if you look only at comb age (comparing the most infested old comb to new comb of the same size), that you see the mite counts go from 12 (new comb) to 62 (old comb).

Now eliminate the comb age, and compare the least infested old comb (which is also the smallest...4.51-4.6) to the most infested old comb (the largest), the count goes from 14 to 62.....would a 4.4 cell give a count of 10?

A difference of 2 is hardly significant, especially considering that most here are keeping bees on comb from 5.2-.5.6 or so...different bees on a totally different range of cell sizes.

I think the study is interesting, and it definitely shows trends in where mites preferentially reproduce...but the paper cites the possibility of nurse bees preferring to be on old comb, and thus transferring more mites...and it's not entirely clear to me how this impacts what actually happens in a hive of bees...when the bees/mites don't have a black/white choice presented to them in the middle of a brood nest...just because they prefer new comb, or large cells...I don't think it necessarily follows that given no choice that they will reproduce less well on new comb or large cells.

You might recall that we have discussed this study before, and if you read through the thread, you will see that there are some of the same misconceptions being made...back in 2008:
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A2=ind0808D&L=BEE-L&D=0&P=19723
....it's like deja vu all over again!

deknow

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