Hi Dee
You seem to only be concerned about the range of body sizes where
European and Africanised bees overlap and cannot be differentiated by size.
You said...
> So to keep ones own European bees, then the
> artificialy enlarged combs/foundation then become a
> detriment to keeping better European stock,
As European races, in particular Carnica, Caucasica & AMM, naturally
exhibit larger body sizes and cell sizes than Africanised bees or
Italian bees, then in maintaining stocks in areas that are not
Africanised, it makes more sense to use those cell sizes that are
relevant to the size of body of the bee concerned.
Although it can be demonstrated that bee stock can be forced over
several generations to adopt different cell sizes (both smaller and
larger) there is no evidence to show that these differently sized
specimens are advantageous in performance or disease and parasite
resistance. What studies do exist, sometimes contradict each other and
there is no trend that occurs on a consistent and repeatable basis. You
appear to be having some success in combating varroa mites, whether that
success can be attributed to the cell size that you are using is a
separate issue.
You live in an area that is ideal for Africanised bees, with the
majority of stock in the US having a strong content of Italian genes
(Italians have the smallest natural body size of all European races).
You then go on to use a smaller cell size that this Italianised baseline
would use if left to itself.
You cite better varroa tolerance as your reason for the smaller cell
size, but the conclusions that many would come to is that you are
attempting to homogenise Italian and Africanised stocks in your area to
create a 'small body sized' gene pool, then merely selecting among the
resulting hybrid bees, for a strain that was more manageable than those
extremes of Africanised bee behaviour that are hyped up by the press.
And that what losses you were having among your bees were being made up
on a regular basis by splitting existing colonies (the vigour of the
Africanised bees helping to rebuild colony strength more quickly).
I have no doubt of your conviction and dedication to your cause, your
results are impressive and have impressed many of your visitors, you
have a group of followers that subscribe to many of your practices and
will repeat many of your dogmas, but such repetition, no matter how
often or loudly made, can ever make up for evidence gained from
experiments able to be replicated by others.
Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
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