Now I’m a newbie at all this but I know that Murphy’s law is around and in effect.
Do you know what I know, like the back of my hand, the thing I truly know is POTTERY. Do you want me to teach you how to make beautiful pottery, build and fire a kiln to 2350 degrees, get THE colors you are after? I’m your man.
But Bees are a hobby for me. I am at best clueless about what is going on.
I just want to keep them where they are at, and not have them fly away, land on a tree next to my box and have someone come along and put them in their box that sits 20 feet away, this happened to me yesterday, good thing I didn’t drop my wallet too.
I do know this; nothing in life is simple or free. Assumption is the MOTHER of all messups. And if you assume that you will get instant regression from bees that are not regressed to begin with by sticking them on small cell plastic, nature will do the tune up on you. I have seen it too many times in what I know and do. And what I mean is shortcuts are a short path to disaster.
I just don’t see it being that simple.
What’s going to happen when the BIG non-regressed bees can’t GET in the cells?
Maybe they won’t like the smell. Bees have a hard enough time with plastic frames.
I guess you could put a queen excluder over the opening to keep the queen from leaving.
How I see it will work is taking packages that are regressed already and installing them on the plastic frames, when they get the frames to work. And you have to mortgage your home to change over to them. Then they are regressed bees on regressed comb, but with no drone on there.
Why didn’t they put a small amount of drone on each frame to keep the bees closer to nature?
Here’s another idea, a lot of people change over to small cell, and Varroa is knocked down a bit. But one or two mites a cycle regress too. It’s a symbiotic relationship, and to think that when the bees regress and change their emergence time that the mites by some point won’t is being in denial big time.
Someone will say that won’t happen, there have been studies done.
There are not enough people out doing small cell to change the bee size/ life cycle yet, on the grand scale, but when they do the mite will change too.
Nature will adapt.
In the end, I know I don’t know anything about beekeeping, I read and I come up with common sense comments.