New Bee Growth

[mikecva]

I looked into a new hive (this year) yesterday and saw nothing but small bees (~1/2" - Guess). the other new package were larger. My question is: since bees emerge as adults, how much of their full size do they emerge at 70%, 80%, 50%? I am hoping I only saw the newest crop of bees in this hive and not a new strain as that will require a lot more documentation then I am use to.  -Mike

[Beeboy01]

Deleted

[CapnChkn]

Hmmm.

The OP didn't mention beetles, but rather bees.  I'm not too sure about the size of the bees, you usually can't really tell the difference in size unless you have another bee to compare to.  Several years ago I saw a bee that had a shiny black/amber abdomen that was slightly smaller than the bees that lived there, and I was sure was a Mellifera.  I keep watching, looking for this unique half black/amber bee, but no luck so far.  This bee was about 1mm smaller.

About the same time I experienced SHB, and the adults aren't trouble.  If your colony is small or weak, having too much space will be a death sentence.  Usually the house bees will clean out the eggs and there are no problems.  It's when they can't cope that the beetles get a stronghold and make the mess.  Not that I want them there at all.

[mikecva]

They are bees, not Small Hive Beetles. But thanks for the input. The bees could be full sized as I did not go back into the first hive to check the size nor did I kill one just to measure it I do not document my bees that well. I do know the queen will get larger but I did not know of the workers. I peeked into the hive again today but the bees looked the right size. Maybe just a senior moment the other day.  :brian: :brian: :buttkick:   -Mike

[BeeMaster2]

They are bees, not Small Hive Beetles. But thanks for the input. The bees could be full sized as I did not go back into the first hive to check the size nor did I kill one just to measure it I do not document my bees that well. I do know the queen will get larger but I did not know of the workers. I peeked into the hive again today but the bees looked the right size. Maybe just a senior moment the other day.  :brian: :brian: :buttkick:   -Mike

I have an Observation Hive which makes it easy to see all of the bees at once. The queen has only been in there for 3 weeks. That means they are starting to hatch out. Yesterday i saw a bee that look like it was half the size of the rest of the bees. There are several sections of comb that are very shallow. I was expecting the bees to build up the comb as the larvae started to grow. I suspect that because they didn't, the bees in those cells are smaller than normal. I do not expect them to grow any bigger. Remember they have exoskeletons and have to shed there skins to grow larger. If the bee developes in a large cell they usually end up larger that normal, same with a small cell.
Jim