Dee Lusby  wrote:
>I found the Taylor work on beesource and recognised it.
>It's the bad New Zealand test worth nothing

You overlook the main point of the excerpt I posted:

> none of the early studies separated cell size with other African (or
Africanized) characteristics, such as a shorter post- capping period. 

What he means is that if if you use Africanized bees, you don't know if it's
the small cells or some other factor, such as hygienic behavior,
post-capping time, or perhaps an as yet unidentified character that controls
varroa. 

Furthermore, it has been observed that varroa are far less trouble in a
tropical or sub-tropical climate than they are in a climate like we and the
Europeans have, further complicating the question.  

We have very long days in spring and summer and rapid colony build-up. This
is followed by a huge increase in varroa which tends to overwhelm the colony
in late summer when the colony is supposed to be raising winter bees. 

pb

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