Dave,

>>...bees from a colony of already measured cell size and give them ... no cell size implication ... comb that they draw is the same as the parent colony.

I have no reason to doubt this; however, I need to convince MYSELF of this. :)  Perhaps Dennis can say whether he put regressed bees in his TBHs!  I thought his were unregressed bees.

Bees maintaining the cell size they were raised on would undermine the local long-time beekeepers' belief that our ferals come from the beekeepers' swarms that were raised on commercial foundation (5.1mm and up).  If I find that the feral comb cell is smaller!  AFAIK, there are no 49-ers in my area.  This would be a sure-fire way of determining if a wild colony originated from a domestic hive or a feral nest.

>>This testing was not complete, but has finished and is unlikely to be
re-started by me.

What I have not done until now, is save and measure broodnest cells from my feral removals.  I have the brood comb from Saturday's removal and will measure the cell size tonight using calipers across ten cells.  I have very dark comb from a tree colony that I removed back in June but at this point I can't be sure of its location within the nest.  I'll measure it out of curiosity as well.

>>All the cell measurements were taken in the brood area of the comb,
which in UK bees tends to be central and smaller than the brood area
exhibited in Langstroth frames with US bees.

Perhaps the managed bees in the US are larger than in the UK.  Larger bees potentially might be more inclined to produce smaller-cell natural comb.

Waldemar

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