> All my hives have been on small cell comb and doing well for several
> season now. I had noticed that the size of the small cell bee varied
> throughout the year. Last season I started up a few all large cell
> hives and I had trouble distinguishing a small cell size bee from a
> large cell size bee so I did a little measuring and comparing.

Glad to see someone has actually taken the time to measure, report, and
ponder this question.  Your results confirm what we have casually observed
over the years, regardless of the brood comb used.  Bees raised early in the
year tend to be smaller and, as the season progresses, the bees get bigger.

That is true of many types of bees, including bumble bees, since the size of
the bees raised is related to the prosperity of the colony, the amount of
forage coming in, the quality of feed on hand, and the number of bees being
raised per nurse bee.

In our honeybee colonies, we used to notice that the first few rounds of
bees were smaller, and therefore started experimenting with protein
supplements.  Even in the early stages of our tests, my son reported that --
although he could net see a whole lot more brood being raised with the
supplements -- he sure noticed that, with supplement, the bees appeared
bigger and more robust, and he didn't see the small bees he saw in hives
without supplement.

After winter, or in package bees, the old nurse bees -- long past the
nurse-bee age -- are strugging to raise brood, with less assistance than
later in the season.  Some early pollen is low quality, and the supply can
be intermittent due to weather.  As spring progresses and the hive builds
up, foraging conditions improve, and more young bees come on stream to help
rear the next generation.  Brood rearing conditions improve, and the
resulting bees are bigger and better nourished.

At the peak of the season, brood rearing cuts back, and then *a lot* more
nutrition is available for each egg laid; as a result, highly nourished,
long-lived winter bees are raised at that time.

There may be more factors involved.  I don't know, but if you want to know
if nutrition is a factor in the size effects you see, labs can analyse the
fat bodies and other parts of your large bees, and your small bees, to
compare their relative nutritional condition.

allen
http://www.honeybeeworld.com

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