# small cell question



## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

I take it no one knows, so what I will do is when they draw out those frames I will pull one out and measure it.

Another thing that surprised me a bit about the couple pieces of comb I took out, they were pretty dark, like coffee with milk in it. And tough, not soft and light like new comb usually is.


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

My experience with wild swarms is that they build a vast variety of cell sizes. The brood area is usually near 5mm, the outer edges of the brood frames (the crown sides) are up to 5.5, and the area of honey storage (typically in a super, as the swarms won't store honey until they are very well established) can have giant cells.up to 8mm. The imperative to make brood comb for the young swarm means the first drawn comb is in the typical range. The honey storage phase on an added super has an imperative for rapid storage of surplus and the bees economize on wax by making the cells large.

I have requeened splits this year that I feed. (The California drought meant this was a new step for me, typical splits fatten on Toyon). The queen moved toward the frame feeder in a super (the center of gravity on the hive migrates toward the resource). The split bees made cells on the super for storage of the syrup, and I generated a couple of frames of perfect drone brood when the queen laid into the honey-purposed foundationless comb. A lesson for me-- If you are going to feed a nuc in the brood buildout phase, take steps to ensure the queen doesn't end up on comb that the bees have purposed for honey. I corrected the situation by moving comb around and the next cohort of brood was a worker frame.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>I don't know what the cell measurement is on any of those frames in my new swarm box, but I took a piece that they'd already built off the lid, measured 10 cells on metric ruler and they are a bit over 4.5 cm. Will they build 4.5mm on the empty frames I put in? Or if there's some larger cells, does that mess up the whole box? 

They have shown a propensity for 4.5mm cells and that's promising, but they build cell sizes according to their planned use. For the core of the brood nest they tend to build the smallest, and the first combs they drawn tend to be for that purpose.

I would let them build and see what they do.


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