> I imagine there would be a greater amount of bees in a 3 lb. by weight
> package of small cell bees. Research by Dr. Jaycox found a bee could
> be downsized by up to 17% (and also enlarged by up to 17%) from the
> widely accepted normal size for a honey bee.

When I was visiting Lusbys, seems to me that Dee showed me some Egyptian
research that demonstrated that bees raised in smaller cells have greater
density --  to a significant degree -- than the same strain raised in larger
cells.  Don't recall how much.

> Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the queen is most certainly not the
> limiting factor.  It's the size of the cluster of bees in spring.  Thus
the
> argument, cluster size being equal.  More cells are covered. Resulting in
> more bees produced in a given area.  It's a matter of logic not cell
size??

Although logic is appealing, a little logic turns out to be inadequate in
this case.

Available nutrition, queen capabilities and propensities, and other factors
enter in.  Besides, apparently, there is a limit to how many larvae an
individual nurse bee can feed well.  The matter is complex, and although
logic is useful and fun, only observation under a variety of conditions will
ultimately tell the real truth.

If cluster heat is the only factor limiting greater brood rearing, then the
logical conclusion will be correct, but if the other factors, or one of
them, are the limit, then there will be no effect from bees covering more
cells.

FWIW, we did find significantly faster buildup using package bees on new
Pierco plastic frames (5.25 mm) than on other brands of plastic foundation
(5.35mm).

allen
A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/

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