finsky; Shame on you. You talk a lot about and for, research but when research is presented to you, you turn a deaf ear to it.
Hah hah. I need not to shame me. :-D I have just balls to tell.
Re; Michael Bush and his small cell honeybee colonies.
M.B. says he has no varroa mite problems since going to small cell or natural comb.
A New Zealand study says "small honeybee cells neither reduce the reproductive success or the amount of cells infested by the varroa destuctor mite".
I have either varroa problems and varroa is problem in Finland at all. It has been here 30 years and we know what to do with it. We need not commit our whole life for to bug named varroa. It is not worth that.
I don't live in New Zealand so if I wanted to get into small cell regression i would certainly listen to what M B has to say.
Of course you do it. I only tell that probably you will loose you hives.
Professional beekeeper from Cyprus Norton on British forum tells his own story:
"Just a little comment about small cell beekeeping: It doesn't seem to work. I started a trial in the summer of 2000 and lost them all after 3 years. A friend of mine risked even more and lost all his bees (about 150 hives) and his wife as she walked out on him when disaster struck and the cash ran out. Recently he was working in a factory putting electrical goods in boxes. What could he do? He had been a beekeeper all his life and wasn't trained to anything else.
Be careful about what you read on the Internet and try to distingiush between actual facts and wishful thinking!
Best regards
Norton. "
In my opinion this is the best research you can get.
If you like so. Small cell guys tell stories which are very far from facts. Just dreaming.
Someone already successful at doing the thing that you want to do.
Most have not been succesfull. They do not bother write their losses and argue with nature way guys.
Mr Finsky, you seem to know a lot about beekeeping in the U.S.A.
US is the country which makes most beekeeping researches an deliver them. Then you have hobby level which want to play with 100 years' old fashion. That hobby level has odd habit and odd losses. They just wat to do things wrong and continue their hopeless ancient line.