Barry writes:
>Do you know the ramifications? Prove it.

PB:
The burden of proof rests on the people positing the new idea. I am stating
that the positioning of the combs is a non-issue, until proven otherwise.
No evidence has been provided that bees are capable of determining the
orientation of the vertices in the bottom of the cell. No evidence has been
supplied that this orientation affects the hive.

Barry:
>No mention of total hive break down in the report.

Dee's statements:
  >Why would colonies want to requeen more then once throughout the
  >active beekeeping year? From what we have seen in our colonies, it
  >is a comb positioning problem with the frames in backwards.

PB:
She is claiming that "frames in backwards" leads to supersedure. The
supersedure of a perfectly good queen in the middle of the season would
indicate a break down of the balance of the hive. The hive is putting
itself at risk of queenlessness when it supersedes. Many hives are so
reluctant to take this step that they fail to do it in a timely fashion.

Premature supersedure is a problem throughout the beekeeping industry,
Dave's comments notwithstanding. But there are many much more plausible
theories as to the cause if this, including inbreeding, "assembly line"
queen rearing, poor nutrition, and pesticide contamination, to name a few.

One cannot go from A) the natural orientation of combs to C) the effects of
disoriented combs without covering the needed step: B) can the bees
perceive this disorientation *at all*? No attempt has been made to
determine whether they can. Evidently it is assumed that because *we* can
see it, they can tell -- very poor logic, indeed.

pb