Dennis Murrel writes:
I've just finished measuring comb from Barry's top bar hive
which had fully regressed Lusbees in it.

Reply:
First of all, Barry did not take back fully regressed bees
from us. What he took back were nucs made from hives in the
process of regression in our holding yard, many of which
where still mounted upon swarm ketching frames, and were
being stabilized for the field, at which time they then
have to shift queen and go thru winter to finally size down
the following year. I might also add, that Dennis following
also took home 2 nucs or so to try from our holding yard,
but nothing stabilized from in the field up in the hills.



Dennis then writes: It had the same broodnest structuce,
tapered cell size and cell size distribution, within a few
percent, seen in the other top bar hives I analysed. Barry
will be posting the details at beesource and I might
generate a web page as well.

Reply:
This is good to know. That it compares to what you are
seeing in your TBHs. How many do you have now by the way? I
assume that both you and Barry successfully finished
regressing the bees down then for uniform subfamily sizing
with the workers.



Dennis finishes:
It appears bee size has very little to do with cell size.
This should be useful to all small cell beekeepers.

Reply:
Really? Can you explain further?


Respectfully Submited,

Dee A. Lusby,
Small Cell Commercial Beekeeper
Tucson, Arizona
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OrganicBeekeepers






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