Allen said:
>> making bees larger.
>>
>> AFAIK, nobody has properly investigated making bees *smaller*.

Elbert Jaycox is the only person in the U.S. I know of which looked into 
bees/cell size fairly recently( 70's)
Jaycox had three books published. Over the years I managed to collect all 
three.
Beekeeping in the Midwest
Beekeeping in Illinois
Beekeeping Tips & Topics

The work of Jaycox and also C.L. Farrar have been  valuable help to the 
commercial beekeepers of the Midwest. I listened and learned from these 
guys. The book Dr. Farrar always promised never happened. After his death 
one of his students became a commercial beekeeper and did put many of 
Farrars *two queen experiments* in print. I have got the 1946 bee culture 
article by his student and possibly his bee magazine articles from the 
period but finding would take a long time I suspect. My collection of both 
the ABJ & BC are in huge cedar lined foot lockers and placed on the top 
shelf of racks in my shop. Only able to be lifted down with a forklift.

I do posses an above average memory and have the Farrar procedure down. 
Farrar kept bees in Illinois supers as did most if not all the bee labs at 
the time. Farrar used a method I have never seen duplicated anyplace in the 
world for swarm control and also made the need to reverse not as necessary.

Jaycox found through several years of research that ( not sure of the book 
or page but believe is in the book Beekeeping in the Midwest) bees can be 
downsized and upsized 17% through changes in cell size.
I am not quite sure why Jaycox was so interested in cell size at the time 
but I followed his experiments and conclusions.

Jaycox would find old dark comb and measure the cells and then raise the 
brood but let emerge in an incubator and then measure the bee size. Dr. 
Jaycox did the research while at the University of Illinois in the 60's & 
70's so I suspect records of his experiments with cell size might still be 
around.

The research of both Dr. Jaycox & Dr. Farrar helped form my early 
beekeeping.

bob 

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