# Is very old brood comb small cell?



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I've heard of enough old untended hives surviving that I would suspect that was the cause.

Yes, the cocoons build up and EVENTUALLY they would get smaller. The bees will chew the cocoons out once they are below the threshold of acceptable size, so they would be natural sized. The problem is this takes a lot of years. How many? I don't know of a study on exactly how much a cell shrinks for each brood cycle raised in it, but the cocoons are certainly not very thick so it would take a long time to get from 5.4mm to 4.9mm.


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## chemistbert (Mar 4, 2004)

There's been reports of men having kept their comb for 25 years or more.


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

>There's been reports of men having kept their comb for 25 years or more. 

I kept mine until I started shaving my head.


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## chemistbert (Mar 4, 2004)

That's terrible Bullseye. Just terrible...


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## Scot Mc Pherson (Oct 12, 2001)

Speaking of caccoons and cell size. Beekeepers in the UK have developed a tradition of replacing combs very regularly and frown upon the american tendency to hold on the the combs. There thinking is that it is unhealthy for bees to brood ontop of so much aged gruff.

Since we know bees clean out and sometimes even tear down cells when they get gunked up with too many caccoons, I wonder if a great deal of the health issues associated with old combs might be due to the fact that the bees response system isn't kicking in telling them to clean the ****ed cells out first. I wonder if because small cell beekeepers are so much closer to natural dimensions that the bees clean the cell more often (or even at all if large cell comb doesn't get cleaned out)


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## Scot Mc Pherson (Oct 12, 2001)

(continuing)

...cleaned out) and therefore further helps in the fight against disease and maladies that cause folks in teh UK to change out combs for foundatoin so often. 

??


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## guatebee (Nov 15, 2004)

I think big cells do provide for many more brood cycles before they become inadequate for larval development. Small cells would arrive at the trashold size much sooner.

Every quote on small cell size is refering to worker cel size, I presume. But varroa prefer drone brood. How is drone cell size different in small cell comb as compared to "standard" comb?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

My observation of "small cell" drones is that I see a wider range of sizes of drones and drone cells. I see some that are way up there around 6.9mm or so and some that are down around 5.9mm. I did occasionally see some that large in large cell hives, but not as many, and seldom saw any that small.


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