I wonder whether somebody experienced with comb in feral bees can
 comment on whether they build a different size of cell in the broodnest area
 than they do elsewhere?



I possess at this time two hives which contain all natural comb. These have
top bars but no foundation. The comb is predominantly worker comb with drone
combs built later at the bottom and edges of the large expanse of worker
comb. At some point we intend to measure the proportion of drone to worker.
There may be a very small amount of transition comb, but the notion that
there are three cell sizes: worker, small worker, and drone, strikes me as
erroneous.

pb