Hello all.

    I was in my delinqunet hive this weekend and notices a number
of little bees.  These bees were about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of
normal worker bees.  In total, I probably saw 10-15 of these
little runts, and have not heard of this or seen it before.

To avoid the "need more info replies"  here is the info.

Midlands of South Carolina, USA
Italian Bees
This hive built up early this spring, and swarmed around late
March.  A week later, it afterswarmed on me.  It had many swarm
cells on the frames, and I was waiting for it to requeen, but it
has taken awhile to do so.  This weekend, I think I finally saw
some eggs, and very young larvae, but since the swarm, it has
been broodless.  Most of the brood frames is les than a year old,
with a couple of old black frames, but I did not notice any small
bees last year (or early this year).

During the broodless period, i did inspections about once a week,
looking at frames for eggs larvae, and it included tipping the
frames over.  Could these little bees be damaged queens from
excesive frame manipulations?  There has been a lot of talk about
how easy it is to damage them once the swarm cells are capoped?

Rod Billett
Lexington, SC
2nd year hobbiest