(ABC XYZ of beekeeping 1945 edition page 125-126.)
http://www.beesource.com/point-of-view/ed-dee-lusby/ Dee claims it is actually 4.83mm
http://bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm = Natural worker comb 4.6 mm to 5.1 mm
There are quite a few other references..
You can also find statements that argue this, but since I have proven it to myself I find it hard to argue against. MANY of the nay sayers I have talked to and read their sites failed to CONTINUE to allow their bees to build what they WANTED, rather, they put an empty foundation in a hive of "NORMAL" plastic or wax foundation and then measured what they pulled out, and that answer is a lot like running a test on Varroa resistance for two weeks during drone rearing season. When I pointed this out to one of those sites he threatened to charge me with harassment if I ever emailed him again... :'(
I will take pictures of my combs and post them as soon as I can get in the hives.
I have aq collection of snipets from sites I read, it will take me some time to figure out where they all came from, I know the last one is from the Bee hive journal site..
http://beehivejournal.blogspot.com/2010/01/cell-size-facts-and-discussion.html I have just had a partial collapse of comb with brood and nectar. Took
pieces out and measured cells to be 4.9 in my TBH
We've been getting numbers in the worker brood area 4.9 and smaller. This
is from a swarm. Some of the drone cells are up
towards 5.4mm! I have to do some more measuring of the honey/pollen cells.
In nature, bees will build comb with different size cells for different
reasons. For instance, the brood cells are approximately 4.9 mm
what we now call “small cell” was actually the natural cell size back in
the early 1900s. At that time bee breeders thought that they could improve
on honey bees by growing bigger bees that would produce more honey.
All the cell walls stand at 120º to each other, forming a perfect lattice.
Natural comb cells for non-Africanized bees are generally 1 inch deep and
4.9 mm wide.
I read it on the internet so it HAS to be true right?