There is one point I'd like to make while dealing with using queen-right colonies in this way. It will often be found that the cells built appear rather small beside those constructed by swarming colonies or by artificial swarms as described below. I think this is caused by the established queen-right cell-building colonies not being in the state that favours heavy secretion of wax, whereas swarms or bees about to swarm, are. The cells look small because they are less massively constructed, and may appear quite diminutive when compared to those built by swarming bees or by artificial swarms made queenless, but virgins from them are usually as good as can be desired. It is not the size of the cell or it's external appearance that matters, but the amount of royal jelly consumed by it's occupant. There are few things more misleading than cell size as a means of judging what sort of queen may be expected to emerge.
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