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Day old - runty or normal ?

2155 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  burns375
So I've got a day old queen, well, 2 days actually. I do expect a newly emerged queen to be small compared to one in full gear laying eggs, but, I'm curious about this one, what do you folks that have done this a lot think? Is this one awfully small, or is that a decent size for a virgin queen that hasn't gone out to mate yet ? I did find it amusing watching her move around the comb, she's sticking her bottom into empty combs as if to lay an egg, but, nothing in the bottom of the cell when she moves on. She emerged on Sunday afternoon, so I dont expect to see anything here for a few days at the earliest.

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I think it looks OK. See how it is after mating and laying. I'll bet it will plump up and "grow" to average size. Just my seat of the pants opinion.
Good luck
She looks of normal size to me for a virgin queen. I had one emerge 4 days ago that was the same size nearly and cloration. lol.. Give her a few days to go mate up, keep in mind good weather is mating time, and wait a week. She'll plump up then. IMO
She looks of normal size to me for a virgin queen.
Thanks. I was thinking it looks good, but, I've only seen virgin queens a couple of times before. Planning on seeing lots more in the future, so just looking for a point of reference here.
I had one of my queens superceded about a month ago. Mine was similar to the size of yours at that age. She's very big now. I bet yours will be fine too.
Looks normal to me. I wouldn't be concerned. She won't reach her full size until a few weeks into laying.
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