Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => NATURAL & ORGANIC BEEKEEPING METHODS => Topic started by: tillie on June 20, 2007, 04:00:14 pm

Title: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: tillie on June 20, 2007, 04:00:14 pm

I am so excited.  Every time I go to the hives, I tuck the measuring device that I got from the Organic Beekeepers' list (http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?topic=9791.0) into my pocket and every time I forget to use it. 

Today I had a break in the middle of the day (I always think I'm going out of business in the slow summer) and went home to move a super to a hive that needed it.  I opened my small swarm nuc that has brood comb from another hive. 

All this season, I have only put SC starter strips in my hives in the brood boxes and an occasional full sheet of SC.  I remembered this time to measure the brood cell on which the queen is laying - it measures 5.1 - they are REGRESSING!!!!! WooHoo!

Linda T with bees going for natural cell size in Atlanta

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: Michael Bush on June 20, 2007, 09:04:12 pm

Right on schedule.

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: Kirk-o on June 20, 2007, 09:58:56 pm

keep going yippieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
kirko

small cell all the way

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: LocustHoney on June 21, 2007, 09:59:40 pm

How can I switch over to small cell??? Is it possible with established hives??? This is what I want to do. Maybe a split??? Fill me in. I read Michael Bush's website and was amazed. Could it be true???

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: amymcg on June 21, 2007, 10:54:43 pm

You can do it one of two ways:

1) In the spring shake them down on to small cell foundation

OR

2) Just start feeding in frames with small cell foundation or with starter strips

The first one is a little faster, the second one a little slower, but less disruptive to you and them.  I am regressing two hives using the second method, I'm in my second year of regression and for the most part they are drawing out the small cell foundation beautifully now.  The first year of regression resulted in alot of reworked comb and eventually by end of summer, some correctly drawn 4.9 cell comb. It takes some time, but everything seems to be working fine.

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: Mici on June 22, 2007, 03:22:09 am

tillie thank you thank you thank you! i am just the same! but yesterday i took the ruler with me and measure, my findings are same as yours! now...can i politely ask you to post a link to that cell size measuring tape here, because i forgot where it was (i was going to print it but....forgot :roll:)

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: tillie on June 22, 2007, 08:13:56 am

There's a yahoo group that Michael Bush and Dee Lusby run (I think they are the moderators).  http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Organicbeekeepers/

I belong to the group and "lurk" although I've only posted once to thank Michelle for the tool.

The file for the measuring tool is listed in the files section of the group (measurement.tool)  and is by Michelle Barry.  I have the file saved on my computer but don't know how to attach a Word file to a post.  I tried copying and pasting it here, but the tables that are the "rulers" don't paste with the document.

Linda T

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: Mici on June 22, 2007, 08:53:24 am

tillie, i am very sorry to bother you further but...i really don't wanna register to this group to (i'm already registered at...hundreds of places) so i would appreciate it very much if you would be kind enough to send it to me on e-mail, my adress is matic.novljanatamis.net   at-@ .

i thank you in advance!

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: reinbeau on June 22, 2007, 11:55:46 am

Mici, here is a .pdf (http://annzoid.com/measurement-tool.pdf) of the tool.  Be sure 'shrink to fit' isn't turned on when you print it out.

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: tillie on June 22, 2007, 01:52:31 pm

I emailed the tool to Mici and will to anyone else who doesn't belong to the Organic Beek list, and/or can't use the post reinbeau put up (my computer at the moment balks at opening pdf files).

Linda T in Atlanta

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: Mici on June 22, 2007, 03:28:27 pm

i thank you both for your effort.
however, it seems i'm experiencing some e-mail problems so i did not receive it, i did however see i was receiving it. anyway the blame is on me, but since reinbeau posted that link it's ok.
again, thank you both

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: Michael Bush on June 22, 2007, 08:36:46 pm

>How can I switch over to small cell???

The first step is to stop using large cell foundation.  From there you can use small cell foundation, starter strips, comb guides or whatever to get either natural comb or small cell comb.

> Is it possible with established hives???

Of course.

> This is what I want to do. Maybe a split???

A split isn't a necessary part of the process but you can make a split and only add small cell.

> Fill me in. I read Michael Bush's website and was amazed.

Try the links on my site to the organic group, and try searching here on "small cell".

I'm not a moderator on Dee's site,  just a participant.

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: LocustHoney on June 22, 2007, 09:01:02 pm

Thanks guys. Now...we are talking about the deep they are in (my hives), right??? What about what they have already? The brood and the honey. It would be like starting over to a new hive for them wouldn't it. Can they learn to do smaller comb easily??

Title: Re: Bees are drawing much smaller brood cells
Post by: Michael Bush on June 22, 2007, 11:11:00 pm

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm
http://www.beesource.com/pov/lusby/index.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Organicbeekeepers