New bees are fluffy

It takes exactly 3 weeks to make a honey bee. First there's an egg, which hatches into a tiny larva and quickly grows to become a fat white maggot. As if in disgust the bees then entomb the maggot in its cell by capping it over with wax. Slowly the maggot metamorphoses into a honey bee.
Watch carefully in the summer months and you will see the baby bees nibbling away at the wax capping covering their cells, before struggling to pull themselves out. Initially all the hairs on their body are sleeked down, but the nursery bees soon groom the new arrivals and within 10 minutes of emerging they look conspicuously fresh and fluffy, and ready to start work.
My colonies desperately need new workers. The winter bees are dying and they have to raise new bees otherwise the colonies are doomed. Until now there has been little sign of new life....until last Thursday.

It happened between midday and 4 pm - a small pile of wax cappings appeared on the floor underneath the hive, as dozens of new bees emerged from their cells.
Of course, I couldn't be certain. It was still far too cold and wet to open up the hives, but today, 40 days after my shook swarms on 5th March, it was finally warm enough to take a look inside. To my delight therein were 3 frames with eggs, grubs and sealed brood, and a number of fluffy bees. This hive looks like it will survive.
Not so the other hive containing the neurotic bees. Yes, there was brood in all stages, but not much, and the cluster of bees is barely enough to occupy two seams. Their future looks bleak.
They say spring is 3 weeks late this year; just the length of time it would have taken to raise those new bees.