# Chaz Dadant documents the artifial enlargement of bees.



## Guest (Feb 17, 2004)

Hi Scot,

I visited your site and read the Dadant's material. I attempted to add a few thoughts but am not wiki wise yet. So I thought I would respond here.

Dadants natural comb measurements are confirmation that bees have not been sustainably enlarged in the US. These are the same size ranges AI Root measured in the 1870s before any ideas of enlargement surfaced in the 1890's. 

These same measurements were later confirmed by both Pritchard and HH Root after the enlargement ideas were put forward in Europe.

These measurements have been the basis for foundation manufactoring since it's inception. The 825 to 850 cells/square decimeter work out to cell sizes of 5.375 to 5.21mm. That's the same range of commercial foundation manufactored today. No enlargements there. Foundation producers rejected the larger is better idea and stuck with the historical natural comb measurements. They said so in their writings.

Cells measurements were taken just like small cell beekeepers do it today. That is perpendicular to the parallel face of the cells. No debate about square or parallelogram areas.

Larger foundation was tried in Europe. It was discovered that enlarged bees, when left to themselves, quickly reverted back to the historical cell sizes. So any permanent enlarge in Europe was do to selection within the bees genetic size range and not due to artificially enlarged bees.

I typed in the original material from AI Root. It can be seen at:
http://bwrangler.litarium.com/a-i-root-and-cell-size/ 

Look in the historical section.

Regards
Dennis


[This message has been edited by usbwrangler (edited February 17, 2004).]


----------



## Scot Mc Pherson (Oct 12, 2001)

Denis,
Just hit the Edit button at the bottom of the page, and start typing, its that easy.

Thanx for the additional info, but I'd prefer if you put it there yourself since its your material










------------------
Scot Mc Pherson
"Linux is a Journey, not a Guided Tour" ~ Me
"Do or not do, there is no try" ~ Master Yoda
BeeSourceFAQ: http://linuxfromscratch.org/~scot/beewiki/


----------

