Natural Beekeeping

Top Bar ApiRevolution has begun! Lets make some inexpensive Top Bar Hives and let them be pesticide free on their own natural comb! Che Guebee is a rebel bee fighting for the survival of the Biodiversity we all depend on and which is seriously endangered by deforestation and mono-crop agriculture! What kind of teaching have you got if you exclude nature?

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Natural Comb has Various Cell Size

I have built 2 Kenya Top Bar Hives for the school of Self-sufficient Householding in Sweden and am taking care of them. I have removed a few emprty combs from the back of the hive so to move the follower board closer to the cluster which will contain the warmth much better.
One of the combs cought my eye. The cells on the left side of the comb were small and the cells on the right side were large. After measuring them I figured out the right were Drone Cells and the left one ranged from approx. 4.8 to 5.2 mm I have not measured this carefully but it was obvious that the cells on one single comb were of many different sizes (unlike wax foundation) and it was amazing to see how the bees decided to place the Drone cells to the West side of the hive and the Worker Cells to the East. Does this mean anything? Doesnt matter. What matters is that bees can decide what is best for them at any given time and build accordingly.
Here are the shots of the same comb and the same side of the comb (the comb is dark because of the mould);

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