Hello Everyone,

Regressing bees to a small cell size is not an easy process. I have
learned much about bee behavior especially concerning drawing out comb.
It is a subtle process and not easily manipulated by the beekeeper.

As a commercial beekeeper using the large cell wax foundation, my major
effort involved the actual construction and embedding of the frames. As
long as adequate nectar was coming in the timing, placement and the bees
behavior were of minor importance.

With the use of plastic little mattered except the actual construction.
What didn't get drawn, didn't get chewed and would be finished later. So
we would toss a box on during a major flow and pick it up at the end of
the season.

With small cell wax foundation the bees behavior is everything. Frame
placement, timing, frame manipulation and the bees needs are critical
even in hives that contain the smaller bees. Anything perceived by the
bees as outside the needs of the broodnest won't bee drawn to the small
dimensions.

Forget drawing the small cell during a major honey flow. The bees only
build the larger cells then.

It takes lots of experience and the willingness to learn from mistakes to
get it right. Boy, I'm still learning the hard way. I have lots of new
comb ready for the melting pot.

I have been involved in testing some new 4.9 plastic foundation. My hope
was that the bees would be forced, opps choose,  to construct the small
cell comb. Then supers of the stuff could be drawn out like I did in my
commercial large cell days. The juries still out on this aspect as a
severe drought has curtailed any kind of honey flow here. At least they
don't chew it during their idle moments :>)

When the subtleties of drawing out good frames of small cell are combined
with downsizing a larger bee, the task is even harder and more expensive.
I think that's a factor in the Lusby's recommendation to initially use
starter strips in frames. Get the bees downsized using the resulting
natural comb and then go for the good 4.9 comb and small cell bee in the
last steps.

Don't give up Joe. I have found that any hive that survives the process
will do a fair job of drawing the small cell.

In the USA bees that will readily draw small cell are available. Russian
queens raised from a Bernard's Apiaries breeder did a fair job, although
they liked to supercede lots. Queens raised from Tom Glenn's Russian
breeders also did a fair job the first time.

Bolling Bee runs their operation on 4.9 and can supply package bees and
queens that readily draw the small cell.

David Miksa runs his queen rearing operation on the older Dadant 900
series comb and his bees are also downsized and ready for the small cell.


Some thoughts and no commercial endorsements
Dennis