Waldemar:

For convenience, uniformity, and overall efficiency of my operation, I 
made the cutout, keeping the queen, and no sooner did the brood hatch out 
than I got rid of the messy and irregular combs, replacing it with Pierco 
foundation, thus forcing them to regress/progress back to “regular” 
(5.1mm?) size cells.  I do not recall any particular problem in this 
transition, done pretty much in one season, a sign of their tremendous 
plasticity in changing environment.   

I have also seen similar “tiny bees” under the root area of a blackjack at 
the bottom of a pond on another occasion.  I did not bother to “rescue” 
these because they were scrawny, mangy, and small in number, indicating 
the limited nest-cavity beneath the root system; I just told the homeowner 
to leave them alone since they have not bothered anyone.  

Probably the parent of the shoe-box colony must have been on a regular-
size comb kept by someone a long time ago albeit there has been no 
beekeeper around since.  Feeling a bit wiser these days, I would rather 
introduce them directly onto regular combs or foundation and start feeding 
them, rather than attaching the cutouts to either empty frames or Pierco, 
when the temperature allows me to, for one has to eventually scrape off 
irregular combs and start from scratch.

Yoon  

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