Hello All,
I try to stay out of the small cell debate as about every point has been
discussed on BEE-L over and over many times.

I will make one comment.  In the tropics and in Florida when a flow is not
on the bees back down to 3-4 frames of brood. Commercial beekeepers needing
strength up for a future flow, splits or a strong pollination unit has to
feed to maintain colony strength.

I think we all realize that varroa knocks out your strongest hives first.
The reason is the higher the amount of brood the faster the reproduction
rate for varroa. When I check a yard for varroa I always check the mite drop
on the strongest hive. I have little time to check all 24 hives in a yard
for mite drop.

After keeping over 400 hives of Russian bees (over several years) and a 100
hives of varroa tolerant survivor bees I came to a realization. Of course
those selling  Russian and varroa tolerant did not agree but I am not far
off in my hypothesis I believe.

I removed a couple survivor hives from buildings and noticed the hives were
small an on a few frames of brood. The  bees did not want to build up but
survived varroa but were unproductive. I had to give frames of honey to get
the hives to make it through the winter. The test is in the archives and I
left those hives alone for two years. They had varroa but no PMS.

Finally I treated as I do production hives. thin syrup for several months as
needed and then the main honey flow. Both hive increased brood rearing and
the varroa population increased also. PMS happened in August and then both
crashed.

Selecting for survivors in my opinion is like selecting for queens which 
keep
small clusters. bees are better able to handle varroa with a small cluster.
High levels of brood production seem to kick in the reproduction of varroa.
Certainly there are genetics which help with controlling varroa but
commercial beekeepers depend on mass quantities of bees. Hives with 8-12
frames of brood at times right before a major honey flow or pollination.

Small cell might have some value to help with varroa control but I am sure
from private testing that a hive downsized on small cell when cranked up in
December in California and fed thin syrup after almonds keeping strength up
and then moved into the Dakotas for a honey crop will either need treating
in August /September and  is going to crash from varroa/virus if untreated.
Under the above circumstance all untreated were dead by October.

Of course that's not the pressure Dee, Dennis Murrel or JoeW.  puts on their
hives. I would suggest all beekeepers which do not crank their hives like
commercial beeks do to invest in some small cell to try.

 I feel if I am going to have to treat I might as well keep the cell size I
run. The downsize loss is too expensive to end up still having to treat.  If
I am going to treat then I might as well run my favorite Italians. They are
predictable as opposed to my Russian and carniolans ( which I also have got
yards of) which shut down brood rearing every time the weatherman ( often
wrong! ) predicts bad weather.

I start building brood for a honey flow by feeding a light syrup. The
Italians at the end of the time period have got the bees I need. The
Russian, varroa tolerant and carniolans are usually about two weeks short on
bees as the queens have shut down for one reason or another. Don't get me
wrong I think the above are productive for hobby and sideline but my yards
of carniolans and my two yards of Russians will be behind the Italians by
about two weeks at super time.

We have got what we call blackberry winter in Missouri. About the time the
blackberries bloom we seem to always get a week of very cool weather. The
bees are in cluster for around 20 hours a day. All my carniolans and Russian
queens shut down egg laying even though by then they have got plenty of bees
to keep brood warm and being fed they have got plenty of ready feed to
generate heat.  A seven day shut down at 2000 eggs a day makes me come up
14,000 foragers short. At 3000 eggs a day I would come up 21,000 bees short.
Some shut down completely and other queens drop to a small circle of eggs in
a couple frames. My Italian lines keep on cranking out brood!

My experiment on queens shutting down during blackberry winter ( or any cool
weather period) for races other than Italians is in my opinion why the
Italians are stronger at super time and produce an extra box of honey.

Finally if you only run Russians or Carniolans you have nothing to compare
your brood production to.  most likely enough for you to make splits or
whatever but you need to run both to see the difference.

My 2 cents worth.

bob

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