Hi Robert,
> All I can do is add one year's unscientific observations. In May, I
shook
> two colonies onto the 'small cell' foundation available from Thornes
> (actually about 5.1mm).
reply:
Yes, was this the Dadant foundation they were having problems with
stretching while milling? I used a good deal of the stuff, it measured 5.05
to 5.07 on the horizontal and usuallly 5.0 to 5.01 on the diagonal. I cut
most of it up into 1 1/2" starter strips and regressed a bunch of colonies
on it. Starting with bees on 5.2 cell sizing they were able to regress from
a range of 4.98 to 5.11. Which showed that the bees could actually go
smaller than the cell pattern given, but most were in the middle. I believe
I have a few of these combs left that weren't reprocessed into foundation. I
tried at the same time using full sheets of foundation of the same type, the
bees using the full sheets keyed in the best and made the most progress.
Robert, are you using press plates to make foundation at this time?
They didn't like it, and one absconded; this could
> have been due to the change in cell size, but could just as easily have
been
> due to starvation, as the weather was lousy, and another local beekeeper
> reported losing a colony which absconded at about the same time,
apparently
> due to starvation.
reply:
Most likely a combination. I learned a few other things too. Even with
queen excluders (includers) if the equipment isn't tight they can still
abscond. I lost three prime colonies(actually two, as one took residence in
stacked supers) this season because I didn't plug the notch in the inner
cover when regressing, nothing like learning the hardway.
> Both colonies laid down ample winter stores; in previous years I've
had
> to feed in autumn. After downsizing, both showed quantities of bald brood.
I
> didn't dig around in the comb to see what was going on, but based on the
> reports of others who've seen the same thing in small cell colonies, I
> believe it to be a response to the presence of foreign organisms like
mites
> or wax moth larvae in the cells
reply:
This seems consistent. I have checked much bald drone brood this season. It
appears that the bees do indeed know there is mites in the cells of the
drones. Upon checking adjacent cells of the bald brood all appear healthy.
But when digging into these bald brood cells varroa is almost always
present. This was very apparent the first year. In the second year instead
of as much bald brood the bees seemed to do much more chewing out of drone
brood. I became aware of this when I spotted what looked like caulk brood
being manifested at small cell colonies entrances this fall/ early summer.
Upon inspection it was found that it wasn't chaulk but half chewed down
drone pupaes being tossed out with occasional immature varroa. It seems that
different colonies use different behaviors to keep varroa in check, but this
is something I'm still observing and won't make to much comments on for now.
At any rate there appears to be some consistency of this behavior amoung
small cell hives scattered around the US and abroad. Using Common stock.
Using Carniolan, russian, italian, hybrid, mongrel, caucasian, Lusbees,
buckfast, SMR types I think almost all have been at least able to draw cells
to 4.9 cell sizing, and some form of bald brood or chewing out seems common.
regards,
Clay
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