From: "Waldemar Galka" " I have read in a couple of books and believe to
have seen it that emerging bees may sometimes be small but they all feed on
pollen and continue to grow to average size.
 I have noticed this variation over the years and put it down to nutrition.
When nutrition and available nurse bees are plentiful, nice size bees.  When
nutrition is low and the nurse bee's protein levels in their body drop
because of this, then smaller bees.  Not nourished as much.  Comments!"

Waldemar may have read Mark Winston, Biology of the Honeybee, 1987, (pages
60-61) and Ribbands, Behaviour and Social Life of Honeybees, 1953 (pages
233-234)  - if there are other commonly available references I would be
interested to hear.

Ribbands records  one study that lavae consumed on average 145mg of pollen
(=4.67mg nitrogen)  and another study found 125mg.of pollen per larvae.
Haydak found in 1935 that colonies transferred to pollen free combs
continued to raise larvae but the adult bees lost 3.21mg of nitrogen per
larvae raised, only 1.73mg of which was in the emerging bees (1.48mg was
lost in converting bee protein back to brood food). So, brood rearing when
there is shortage of pollen results in emerging bees that have down to a
third the normal amount of nitrogen in their bodies and their nurses have
lost weight also.    So, if pollen reserves run out say 1 Feb, then bees
that emerged between 25 Jan (the nurses) and 21 Feb could all be undersized.
Farrar found in 1936 that colonies which had only 6% less bees in April than
the previous October had consumed 612-626 sq ins of pollen reserves = say 4
entire sides of frames 14x12 inches,  (while colonies with only 160-170 sq
inches of pollen reserves were only half size in spring).

Winston states that emerging bees eat pollen over the first 8-10 days during
which they gain weight (but I cannot find figures ).  Lack of protein in
that period means bees do not attain normal weight (small bees) - and
shortens life. The type of pollen can be important - Maurizio in 1960
grouped pollen for nuitritive value. Studies in 1971 showed reduced
longevity in bees fed dandelion pollen. So, keep away from those apple
orchards  unless the grower has cut the grass!

So,  the observations that smaller bees can be found at times does suggest
those colonies may be short of pollen .  I wonder if such underfed bees then
draw out smaller cells simply because they use their own bodies as the
guage - basically, that they work from the inside and shape the cell around
themselves. I wonder if larvae then raised in such smaller cells may be
smaller in turn, because they stop eating when their bodies fit the
(smaller) cell.  If so, smaller bees may take some time to work out of the
system.

Does anyone have records of the sq inches of pollen consumed in their
colonies and whether there were small bees or not in spring?

 Robin Dartington

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