Hello Bob and Everyone,

>About the only thing I could add which might help in your "musings" is
that
>I have seen many a worker raised in *drone cells* ....

I've seen that a few times, expecially with new queens laying their first
brood cycle. I had forgotten about  it:>)

>I also notice a variation in size of bees raised in the same size cells
but
>honestly never noticed a seasonal difference until you now point it
out....

I first saw the smaller bees right after regressing early in the spring.
Some of those observations were posted on Bee-L. Why did I see smaller
bees when I first started regressing? First of all I was now looking for
them! And I attributed them to the small cell comb. Maybe all new bees
are small cell size in the early spring when compared to the size of the
overwintered bees. And  I didn't have anything to compare against. I had
regressed all my hives.

>You have got my curiosity up so will try and do a few small cell
experiments
>this year such as you did and see if I get the same results.

I think it's important to see for ones self. Small cell beekeeping is
floating in a sea of speculation. And this speculation often repeated
takes on the attributes of fact. More observations will certainly help
seperate the wheat from the chaff.

>What type camera did you use to take those pictures as they were
excellent?

It's a Canon A40. Digital photography is so much easier for me than using
film. I can take hundreds of shots and keep only a couple of the best
ones. I was just too cheap to do that with film, so I took fewer shots
and very few good ones:>). The A70, a newer model, has a macro mode that
allows shots as close as 2". That's almost as good as the Nikons!

It will be interesting to hear of your results and maybe see some of the
action in your photos.

Regards
Dennis

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