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Author Topic: What is Dee Lusby's source for cell sizes graphic?  (Read 3782 times)

Offline ugcheleuce

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What is Dee Lusby's source for cell sizes graphic?
« on: March 19, 2015, 07:46:09 pm »
Hello everyone

I found this graphic on the web somewhere:
http://resistantbees.com/fotos/klimazonen.jpg
that shows how bees in different parts of the world naturally have different cell sizes.

The graphic is credited to Dee Lusby, but I could not find out what Lusby's own source for this information is.  Does anyone know?  Did Lusby wrote a book, perhaps, that explains where this data comes from?

Thanks
Samuel
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Samuel Murray, Apeldoorn, Netherlands
3 hives in desperate need of requeening :-)

Offline AR Beekeeper

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Re: What is Dee Lusby's source for cell sizes graphic?
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2015, 01:50:08 pm »
I have my own ideas, but I have never been able to find a particular source.  Perhaps if you google this "On the natural cell size of European honey bees:  A "fatal error or distortion of historical data?" in the Journal of Apiculture 53 (3) 327-336 (2014), written by Francis Saucy, you may be able to decide for yourself.

Online Michael Bush

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Re: What is Dee Lusby's source for cell sizes graphic?
« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2015, 01:33:56 pm »
This is the nearest thing to her book:
http://www.beesource.com/point-of-view/ed-dee-lusby/

You can find her on this group on Yahoo and ask her:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Organicbeekeepers

The problem with saying what size cells the bees make is that they make a wide variety and some are just for different purposes.  Worker brood, drone brood, honey storage.  The core of the brood nest is smaller than the outer edges.  They are all different kinds of comb and are different sizes.  So do you average them all?  Do you just go for the core and call that worker size?  Do you average the almost worker size honey storage in with the workers?  Then you have the whole regression issue where bees that have been raised on enlarged cells don't build as small as natural sized bees.

As far as the historical record Saucy picks what he wants and ignores all the most common references.  By far the most common recorded and reported cell size for the last five hundred years or so is five cells within an inch, which if it is exactly five cells to an inch (and not just "within an inch") that would be 5.08mm.  It shows up over and over in account after account.  I have an original Huber's New Observations on Bees in French with the original plates with a plate (VII A) that Huber says is "natural size".  It measures 4.0mm on center.  So I seriously doubt it was ever any larger than 5.08mm...
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