Dave Cushman writes:

You seem to only be concerned about the range of body sizes
where
European and Africanised bees overlap and cannot be
differentiated by 
size.

As European races, in particular Carnica, Caucasica & AMM,
naturally exhibit larger body sizes and cell sizes than
Africanised bees or Italian bees, then in maintaining
stocks in areas that are not Africanised, it makes more
sense to use those cell sizes that are relevant to the size
of body of the bee concerned.

Reply:
Yes, Dave you say it quite well in both these stmts above,
and herein is the artificial problem created now perplexing
many with their honeybees. 

For there is overlap in size, in all races/strains of
honeybees mentioned by you. For nowadays in our modern
world, the domestics have been artificially bred to the
high end/larger end of the natural occurring size spectrum
to the detriment of the bees, creating less variability,
that is necessary for fighting todays problems. To gain
variability, now the bottom rails of the natural occurring
size spectrum, need to be used again, to get the bees back
off the top of the mountain, to the lowlands so they can
regain the variability they have lost.

Respectfully submitted,

Dee A. Lusby
Small Cell Commercial Beekeeper
Moyza, Arizona
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/organicbeekeepers/ 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---