Roger said:
I have to give my view on this particular point.  A comparison of 5,5 with
4,9 cell size gives a an increase of around 25% in the number of cells in
any given area.


In the U.S. I use 5.1mm foundation which I consider the correct size. I know
of no 5.5 mm even offered for sale.

The queen is the key plus management. Cell size is a moog point in my
opinion. I use the "open brood nest" system of management as outlined in the
book "honey getting" by Lloyd Seachrist ( 1946).

The queen always has cells to lay in. Under my system a couple mm make no
difference. With *proper management* the queen will never be able to fill 20
9 5/8 deep frames with brood.

When I kept bees in Florida the queen only wanted to maintain about four
frames of brood ( periods between honey flows) unless being pushed through
feeding etc. We had to use many methods to entice queens to lay maximum egg
production.

Through experience I have learned queens once shut down for winter will not
start back up until the days start getting longer. In california we tried
without success to build a fire under queens .
Fresh pollen helps but the bees know the time to get serious about brooding
up is when the days start getting longer.

Years ago I did research on the amount of eggs laid by a queen in a 24 hour
period and was amazed at the difference between queens (both of the same
race and of different races) . I was also amazed at the number of times all
queens in a yard shut down for a week or a couple days.

I chuckle at the general rules of 1500 to 3000 eggs laid by queens per day.
I wonder at times if those people ever checked queens for egg laying.

Queens lay only the amount of eggs (normally) that the workers can care for
which is the controlling factor. The egg laying raises as bees to cover and
nurse are raised   ( assuming plenty of stores are available).

Bob

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