In a message dated 8/9/02 3:52:26 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:
   > I'm not intending to poor cold water on the small cell issue, but I do
> want
> to be open about what is happening with those going through this process, as
> it is not just a simple matter of putting bees on small cell foundation and
> all problems are over.
>

Hello
>
>   When I first started to downsize a few years ago, I happened to read a
> medical paper about a lady who received a hart and lung transplant. When
> she first awakened from surgery, she said she would die for a beer. This
> lady never before had a drink of beer. She also had a craving for chicken
> nuggets.
>   Through her research (newspapers) she found her donor to be a young man
> killed in a motorcycle accident. She received permission to talk to his
> parents. He lived on beer and chicken nuggets. I discussed this with
> doctors and they say it is common. They call this Body Cell Memory.
>   This made me think of the mechanisms in play when one down sizes bees.
> Are they making the cell size smaller from memory or is it body cell
> memory? I placed two boxes with 4.9 foundation next to each other and shook
> a hive into each one. They both did a very bad job of drawing out the
> foundation. I waited until the first brood was ready to emerge. I then
> shook one of the hives onto another box of 4.9 foundation. No new bees.
> Again, they drew out the foundation very poorly. It looked like the first
> foundation they drew out.
>   I shook the other hive onto 4.9 foundation after it was more established
> and the new brood had emerged. They did a much better job of drawing the
> foundation. It was a little mixed but there were more cells 4.9 or close to
> 4.9. This may not have been very scientific, but I did learn that it may be
> the bees with 4.9 body cell memory that are doing a better job at drawing
> out the foundation.
>   The year before all this, I shook two hives down onto the Dadant 4.9
> foundation, which turned out to be 5.0 or the 900 series. I went back to
> those records and photos. The bees drew out the 900 foundation nicely. A
> large percentage of the cells were 5.0 or just slightly bigger. The next
> shakedown onto 4.9 foundation was also very good. What did this tell me?
> The first down size onto 5.0 foundation gave me a larger amount of new bees
> emerging with a smaller body cell size memory. There were more bees better
> at drawing out true 4.9 foundation. If I shake a large cell hive directly
> onto 4.9 foundation, I get very few bees with a body cell memory of small
> cells. There is such a gamete of cell sizes and it took two more shake
> downs to get to good 4.9 cells.
>   For someone thinking of down sizing, it is not easy. Most of the work can
> only be done in the spring. You have to feed at all times. It will be
> cheaper to down size into three or four frame nukes. You will not waste ten
> sheets of foundation. Your last shake down can then be into a box with ten
> frames of foundation. If body cell memory is in play, one can fine tune an
> established 4.9 hive by culling out not quite perfect frames.
>   My off the wall reasoning.

       forrest


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