Small Bees from Old Comb?
Most of the old textbooks make referance to old comb
producing smaller bees. The reason usually given
is that a build up of cocoons from successive generations of larvae
causes a narrowing of the cell due to thickened walls.
I feel we can challenge this view and offer a different
reason which may well fit the facts better than the original theory.
This picture (curtesy
Penn State University) was originally intended to show an egg in a
cell... Which it does admirably. I include it here to show the
laminations in the thick, black, old comb which was intended to give
a good contrasting background to the original photograph.
The things to note are the bullet shape of the cell bottom
and the extreme thickness of midrib, yet the cell walls show signs of
being chewed down and fresh walls being added after the raw edges of
the laminations have been sealed over with wax.
The following text was originally part of an Email
discussion. The traditional statement is
that as the years go by, the cells build up a layer of old cocoons and you
start getting smaller bees.
My reply was... This is can be a mechanism by which the
bees compensate for foundation that has too large a cell size.
The cells in old comb often appear smaller than they really
are... The cell rims are thicker in axial depth and have a higher wax
to pollen ratio than newer comb. The mouths of the cellrim are often
more truly circular in old comb whereas in new comb the shape is a
hexagon with rounded corners.
I once, (1989 or 90), came accross some combs that had been
in continuous use for 22 years, the bees were healthy, fairly dark
coloured, nice temper. The combs were solidly black, but smelled
sweet. I persuaded the owner to let me cut a chunk from the centre of
the most central brood comb, as luck would have it there were only
eggs and young larva in that position. I used a very sharp pocket
knife, but the cutting was very difficult with a great deal of tearing
rather than clean cutting. When I got the sample back to my factory
I put it in the fridge alongside the milk, temperature 3 or 4 deg C,
I cut many cross sections using various blades, (I had to re-cool it
several times as well), with varying degrees of success... The mid rib
was 6mm thick but the cell walls were no different to fresh cells
although the bottoms of the cells were 'bullet shaped'. You could see
where the bees had chewed back the cocoons and then sealed over the
exposed laminations. I think the bees repeat this process at about 3
or 4 year intervals. I have given old comb to several swarms (I prefer
to use foundation but sometimes needs must...) The results were about
a 50/50 split with some combs used straight away and others chewed up
and fresh walls added.
We now know that we have been providing our bees with
oversize foundation for about a century. I feel the so called smaller
bees are merely natures attempt to redress the balance. And that if
comb were to be kept in use for a long time a stable situation would
occur whereby the cell walls would be chewed down and replaced on a
regular basis.
Revised... 28 November 2001
