Are you grafting, or what caused the cells to be started?
Larger size of the cell and of a queen is generally accepted as positive signs. So called "caste queens" are on a sliding scale of nearly as large as a fully endowed queen, down to very little larger than a worker. Their ovariole development is also on a similar scale. A queen raised in best of conditions will have a potentially longer period of fertility due to more sperm stored and a quicker laying rate due to larger number of functioning ovarioles than one compromised by raised from, say, a four day old larvae. I think up to 5 days from the egg will give a somewhat functional queen. A cell's size can be deceptive when raised on older hard comb as the bees dont chew down the walls as much and a considerable portion of the functional cell is concealed inside the old comb and less appears in the visible vertical portion.
Many things could influence queen size. If grafted, the person has influence on age of larvae and setting the conditions for max availability of stores, density of nurse bees bees and overall population. Emergency cell creation forces the situation and COULD result in less than optimum selection. If conditions are marginal there may not be as much or any culling of cells by the bees. The queen from the oldest larvae is the one first emerged and the one to take the throne.
What is your guess about a larger queen giving off more pheremones? If the size variation is due to different genetic type the smaller queen could be better for local conditions. Quite a few things that make a definite, short, answer difficult. If they are from a fairly uniform lot of bees I think the smart money would be on the larger most symmetrical cell and the larger of the ensuing queens.
Larger size of the cell and of a queen is generally accepted as positive signs. So called "caste queens" are on a sliding scale of nearly as large as a fully endowed queen, down to very little larger than a worker. Their ovariole development is also on a similar scale. A queen raised in best of conditions will have a potentially longer period of fertility due to more sperm stored and a quicker laying rate due to larger number of functioning ovarioles than one compromised by raised from, say, a four day old larvae. I think up to 5 days from the egg will give a somewhat functional queen. A cell's size can be deceptive when raised on older hard comb as the bees dont chew down the walls as much and a considerable portion of the functional cell is concealed inside the old comb and less appears in the visible vertical portion.
Many things could influence queen size. If grafted, the person has influence on age of larvae and setting the conditions for max availability of stores, density of nurse bees bees and overall population. Emergency cell creation forces the situation and COULD result in less than optimum selection. If conditions are marginal there may not be as much or any culling of cells by the bees. The queen from the oldest larvae is the one first emerged and the one to take the throne.
What is your guess about a larger queen giving off more pheremones? If the size variation is due to different genetic type the smaller queen could be better for local conditions. Quite a few things that make a definite, short, answer difficult. If they are from a fairly uniform lot of bees I think the smart money would be on the larger most symmetrical cell and the larger of the ensuing queens.
