Hi Joe

 > “Until the late 1800s honeybees in Britain and Ireland were raised in
 > brood cells of circa 5.0 mm width. By the 1920s this had increased to
 > circa 5.5 mm.”

There is nothing wrong with the statement above, which applies in UK, 
for which there is ample evidence in the form mentioned by Jim and seems 
to apply in a similar fashion in USA.

But it does not tell a complete story... In USA over the same period, 
the morphometry of bees must have changed considerably due to the change 
in racial type preferred by beekeepers, This swung from being largely 
AMM as originally imported, to only 3% AMM genes today, with Italian 
types and Carniolan derivatives in the majority.

The AMM is a different bodily structure to the Italian bee and builds a 
cell that is larger in average size by a factor of 0.2 mm to 0.4 mm. The 
Carnica has a natural cell size that is between the two, but on the 
larger side of centrally between the two.

That situation is different in UK as much of the mongrel background of 
today contains a high proportion of the larger bodied AMM genes and has 
done throughout the period.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

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