New Project: Foundationless frames and small cell foundation in brood chambers

I have named the new hive, Molly Brown (MB). She takes over Matilda's equipments and since all the equipment are marked with a M for Matilda, it made sense to keep the 1st name starting with a M to organize the equipment and to avoid interchanging equipment to prevent diseases spreading from one hive to another.

Queen Molly Brown has been laying very well. She was released from her queen cage on May 14th. By May 20th, she has filled up five frames with eggs and the oldest larvae is 6 days old. She started laying almost one day (May 15th) after she was released. She is laying at a rate faster than the bees can build comb cells since most of the five frames are all foundationless.

I started off the package with one small cell 4.9mm foundation and 4 frames with starter strips. The 3rd day after the package was installed, I checked the hive and the frame with the full small cell foundation collapsed. It was a good thing I discovered the collapse, as the bees were already building their own comb that were not aligned with the frame. I replaced it quickly with a foundationless frame instead. The small cell foundation being made of pure beeswax is much softer and fragile than plastic foundation but the greatest advantage is the bees builds comb on it immediately. On 20th May, I added two more frames with small cell foundation, this time properly securing the foundation with popsicles and a touch of wood glue to prevent another collapse, by 22nd May, the bees already built comb on 30% of the foundation on one side of each frame. Its the fastest adaptation of foundation I've seen. There were so much stores on those frames that the foundation was starting to warp to one side coz of the weight imbalance. I rotated the frame to balance out the comb building.

Goal:
The main goal of the small cell 4.9mm foundation is to have the egg to bee development stage of 21 days shortened to disrupt the varroa mite life cyle.  The 4.9mm cell creates a much tighter fit when the larvae grows, leaving less space for varroa mites plus the cell gets sealed earlier which tightens the opportunity for varroa to enter the cell to lay eggs during the pupae/development stage of the honey bee. The common honey bee is a perfect host as the varroa mite takes advantage of the 12 day pupae stage of the bee to lay its eggs (up to 21 eggs), the eggs to hatch, mature as mites and then mate while still in the capped cell. Only the matured and mated female mites leave the cell, the male mite and the immature mites dies. The female mites leaves the cell to latch itself on the nurse bees, the mites feed on the new host and then goes to another brood cell just before it gets sealed to lay more eggs. So the small cell foundation is to spoil this cycle. It is known that the AHBs have shorter development time and fewer mites can come to maturity.

Desired Result:
I've also heard that the bees emerging from 4.9mm cell have smaller bodies and a longer wing to body ratio. My guess is that the bees may have better energy efficiency when they get to their foraging stage. Maybe the smaller forager bees live for an extra 2-4 days which would mean a higher amount of nectar and pollen stored in the hive.

Reality:
I don't think the gals in Molly Brown are following the 4.9mm cell size. They seem to be building over the prescribed cell size. But it is still to early to really say but I will be updating this in a few days time with proper measurements. Here you can see the 4.9mm starter strips that have not been built over on the left side and on the right side, the cell sizes are bigger.

For normal plastic foundation the cell size is 5.4mm. I have noticed that for natural comb built on foundationless frames the size varies from 5.1mm-7mm. The larger cells up to 7mm were noticed on the periphery of the frames where the bees store honey and pollen. The cell size decreases as it gets to the center where brood is nursed. I thought this was very a smart building plan. Larger cells for more food storage and smaller cells to nurture a small honey bee.

The picture below is comb built within 3 days on all five frames.