Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[smallcell]

I have kept bees on small cell foundation for the last 8 years now. I published an article in BBKA News last June that described what I have been doing. Since 2012 I have not treated for varroa and have lost only one colony to varroa. I have lost other colonies but for other bungling beekeeping reasons! There is a growing cohort of local beekeepers where I am, that I know personally, that have gone down the small cell route. There is even a seasonal beekeeper I know that does likewise though the NBU party line, alas is to treat, treat, treat.

I came to an agreement with Thornes a little while ago and they agreed to start producing small cell foundation in the UK, so it is now readily available in all frame sizes.

For me and for many others small cell works. For some it does not work. As I said in my BBKA News article what is there to lose by giving this a go? A change of foundation cell size (and subsequent bee size) and time is what is required.

I have come across 3 natural/wild bee colonies that I have found and had an opportunity to measure the cell size or allow them to build their own foundation. All have all been 4.9 to 5.1mm. I know that proves nothing but it did make me wonder how they are able to survive without human (beekeeping) interference?

David Heaf wrote a very good review of small cell in the Beekeepers Quarterly back in 2011. Overall, I would say his critique was very good. The evidence he reviewed showed that the balance of published scientific evidence so far was not favourable towards small cell. One of the longest running studies that found against the concept, a four-year study by Dahle, still used oxalic acid each winter which I thought was very corrupting because the bees never had a real chance to demonstrate the efficacy of small cell. Other studies were very short and as in my article I have stated that it takes the bees much more time to adapt

Small cell does not require an exclusion area, does not require breeding for particular behaviour traits, is independent of the drones that are mating with your queens – it can be determined by us individual beekeepers, through our choices in husbandry, regardless of what our beekeeping neighbours are doing. It. But it does require a willingness to try it!

[biobee]

I must admit that I have not tried small cell foundation, preferring to let the bees build there own comb wherever possible, especially in top bar hives.

If you find that it works for your bees, that's good, but have you done a side-by-side test against "normal" foundation? That's the only way to know for sure. I don't treat, but I do use standard foundation in some of my conventional hives, and it doesn't appear to affect survivability.

[smallcell]

When I began to think there was something in this concept of small cell foundation I transitioned my hives across to small cell

I keep my colonies in two locations: our garden and our allotment

I made sure that I left one colony on each site on regular foundation (5.4mm) to test the hypothesis you mentioned. Nothing scientific about this as the numbers were very small: 3 in our garden and 6 to 8 on our allotment

As I began to see the bees managing the varroa load I also did not want them to be in a varroa free or varroa light area. The 5.4mm hives had high varroa loads throughout and I wanted the small cell bees to tough it out as there would be some drift and drone movement back and forth.. They seemed to make it ok

Once I satisfied myself that this worked for me I transitioned the remaining 5.4mm to small cell.