I inspected one of my hive today, almost 1 month ago since the cutout. During the cutout I caught the queen. At that time she was small and light yellow.
Now she's still small but dark. It appears from the pictures that she is smaller than some of the workers (not drones). Is that normal or she's "lame"?
Maybe she was a new queen because this was the wine barrel hive that had tons of collapsed combs, which could have killed the original queen.
(http://tackletour.net/temp/images/picwinebarrelhive100724a.jpg)
(http://tackletour.net/temp/images/picwinebarrelhive100724b.jpg)
What is your brood pattern like?
OzBuzz is right, how well is she laying? I the brood is the middle of the frame or spotted(skip a few, lay a few)? How many frames of brood? One, two, both sides? :)
I have not experienced any correlation between size of queens and their performance. I have had excellent small queens and large queens. If she is performing well, that is what counts. If they are survivor stock even better, and all the more reason not to replace her with a commercial queen.
i see a bee hatching out right near where she is. she's most likely on that frame to lay in the spaces recently vacated. that's a good thing. the little we can see of your brood looks great. if it all looks like that, don't worry about what she looks like.
I agree with the others. Great pics!
Scott
Put her to work.
maybe she isnt small , maybe the bees are really big