During the spring development of bee colonies, small-cell combs were found to create
equally favorable conditions for worker bee rearing as standard-cell combs, since the workers reared
in the small-cell combs did not differ significantly in the majority of morphometric traits, including
the length of wings and the sum of the widths of the third and fourth tergites, from those reared in
standard-cell combs. Moreover, they had a significantly longer and wider thorax. It can be assumed
that the workers reared in small-cell combs collect nectar as effectively as those reared in standard-cell
combs, as both groups did not differ in the proboscis length. It was confirmed that the body size of
workers is relatively constant and is less influenced by the width of comb cells than was assumed
previously, as the values of their morphometric parameters did not increase proportionally with the
increasing cell width. The colony kept on small-cell combs provided worse rearing conditions for
workers reared in standard-cell combs than the colony kept on standard-cell combs, which may have
been related to the less abundant feeding of larvae by workers reared in small-cell combs.