One of my newly installed Italian Nuc is changing rapidly. When I installed it almost 90 % of the bees were Italians. Now 27 days after instilation almost half of the population is well.... black bees.... Carniolan! Is this possible?
The queen was an Italian queen installed by the guy I bought the nuc from! What happened?
-Rodni
If the queen was properly mated, the bees have 15 to 20 different daddies. What strain were they?
Unless they are AI, you don't know what kind of bees a queen will produce.
Sounds like my first wife.
I have 3 Carnie hives and 2 of them are laying Italian looking brood at the moment. Next week or next month it might be all dark bees hatching instead. As long as you have a live, active queen don't worry about the color of the workers. Diversity is a good thing.
My first hatch from my Carnie queen looks very Italian...with some cordovan and darks mixed in. It is actually pretty cool to watch then entrance and see the variety of colors of bees in the hive...but mostly italian looking.