Hello Trevor & All,

What you describe was what happened to me the first time. When I asked the
small cell group they said what I saw and you saw was normal. I thought to
myself back then . ---- ---- ----!
Way to much hassle.

Now six years later Dennis Murrel has suggested a better way and has
convinced me to try. He talks about the method at his Bee Wrangler web site.

I tried to explain the amount of headache the Florida beekeeper was in for
by trying to get 4-6000 hives on small cell but he seemed determined to go
ahead and not heed my warning.

As I explained the first of December the placement of the 2 frames of small
cell foundation in a strong hives brood nest center a couple weeks before
our main flow is similar to what I normally do with a couple frames of drawn
comb at that time to prevent swarming. However some swarming may occur in
the test hives as drawn comb gives the queen room to lay eggs right away
while frames with foundation will not give her room to lay eggs and she can
stop laying eggs if other combs are full of brood. A queen which is not
laying eggs is a flight risk.

Dennis M. seems to think after you get four frames of 4.9mm correctly drawn
comb in the brood nest you see the same benefits as Dee sees with the whole
box 4.9mm.

I figure once I get all the comb drawn I will reduce the number of test
hives ( 87 with 2 frames)  in half and end up with 43 hives with four frames
of 4.9mm. I am considering spliting the 4.9 mm part of the strong double
hive down into  a single deep for the summer.

9 frames of which the four in the center are 4.9mm.

 I might try a few with 6 frames of 4.9mm and 3 on the very outside being
larger cell.

The whole project is a test.

Also the above is thinking out loud. Much will depend on the way the bees
draw and react to the small cell foundation.

bob


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