I sell queens, and see quite a many.

There is always a small percentage of 'unacceptedly* small queens that I 
don't want to sell. Especially early in the season when cell builders 
have less bees.

In the beginning I was using them to make new colonies for myself.

These queens are less than 80 % of size of normal queens.
They were accepted ok to new colonies of 2-3 frames of capped brood.

But most of them , about 80 % were changed by bees in about 2 months 
after the colonies grow up. .

I still do this sometimes when I am really out of queens early season, 
but try to change them later.

I have seen some queens like this head good colonies for years, but its 
rare.

Queens with 5 legs do quite well, if the missing leg is not in the 
front.

Ari Seppälä
Finland

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