Allen must be a mind reader.  He has asked the very same questions that I
have written down.  I intended asking the people on the Top bar hive list to
measure as Allen describes and let me know the results.  However, Luddite as
I am, I have been unable to work out how to send the same message to lots of
people.

As additional questions I was going to ask the latitude and altitude of the
respondents' hives and whether their bees were local mongrels or a known
race, eg Italians.

The reason for the extra questions is that many creatures get bigger/ burlier
the farther they originate from sea level/ the equator.  If, as expected,
preferred cell size is genetically controlled Italian bees should prefer the
same range of cell sizes whether they are in Florida or Alaska (or even
Italy).

Where a TBH has feral bees, especially if in an area where bees have always
been kept so there has been a good genetic mixture for a long time it would
be interesting to see whether selective pressure from the environment will
favour bees producing cell sizes more suited to their location.

I agree that there may be more than one cell size on one comb.   I measured
as described three times on 2 wild combs and got 3 different figures.  The
average was 5.06mm.  Foundation is 5.7mm, about 12 1/2 % oversize.

Chris Slade