small cell queens?

[tony350i]

Hi,
Have you noticed when doing a walk away split that the queen cups or cells that the bees build for the new queen that they are raising are a bit smaller then the bees on standard/larger cell hives.

The reason I am asking is the split I have done about two weeks ago built queen cell and they werenÂ’t that big so I made the bees start again with a new frame off eggs and today I had a look and the cells that they have started to build look like they are going to be as small as the ones I scrapped.

I was under the impression that queen cells need to be big to fit all the food that she needs to feed on.

The frames that the cell are being built are natural cell frames


Tony

[wayacoyote]

Tony,
One think that Michael Bush taught me is that bees will HAVE to fill the cell to bring the queen larvae out past the lower cell wall. This is because they can't/ don't tear down that wall. This is the first thing that came to mind regarding why bees might choose a smaller cell than a large one... easier to fill in.
Waya

[tony350i]

Ok i will leave the new cells,

thanks Tony