Dave Cushman wrote: > Hi Scot & all >>I assert that feral EHB populations of 3rd or higher >>generation ALWAYS (and I put my reputation >>on that statement) display small cell characteristics and are >>indistinguishable from AHB when using size for qualification > > > Be careful when making statements like that... I can show you colonies of a > substrain of AMM that will not adopt cells smaller than 5.6 mm even after > several generations of attempted regression... Dave has an excellent paper on just that at http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/denwood.html A long time ago a post had a link to a chart of cell sizes of different races of bees in their native habitat and cell sizes were all over the place. Also, within the same race, it seems that the hotter it is the smaller bee does better and the cooler, the larger bee does better. It is interesting that the few papers I have read about AHB v EHB when they were tested under the same conditions, the AHB had lower Varroa loads because they removed twice as many "infected" pupa. Cell size did not matter. It was all hygienic behavior. Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---