[heartwood]

I’ve been seeing the usual number of honeybees here which is way down from.my childhood.

I read that the commercial frames with the comb stamped out for the bees to build on, make the cells just a bit bigger than the bees naturally wood. Saves on wax, more energy to honey production.

So the larval bees grow bigger than they naturally would and are more prone to mites, can’t groom themselves as well.

There are high grooming strains of bees that do better protecting themselves from mites, but are still vulnerable to other problems.

Beekeepers please correct me if I am wrong. I do hope to keep bees one day but sounds risky.

[thegagline]

It appears that the honeybee population has markedly declined since my childhood.

As an aside, I haven’t seen a red-winged blackbird since the early 90s.

[tlozo]

I read that the commercial frames with the comb stamped out for the bees to build on,

Small cell beekeeping as a varroa mite treatment was first proposed by Dee Lusby in Arizona. It was found later that her success was due to having Africanized bees not having anything to do with cell size.