Temps this weekend hardly touched 50. We had some rain and alot of wind. I have 30 colonies of typical Italians but one is 50+% black bee's even though the queen is orange. I know it was her drones in her mating flight. Point is all stayed home except this colony. They were very busy. Is this typical?
Quote from: danno on October 05, 2009, 09:29:49 AM
Temps this weekend hardly touched 50. We had some rain and alot of wind. I have 30 colonies of typical Italians but one is 50+% black bee's even though the queen is orange. I know it was her drones in her mating flight. Point is all stayed home except this colony. They were very busy. Is this typical?
Yes,some breed of bees fly in alot rain and wind when others don't.
Danno, by black bees, did you mean Carniolan breed? The Carniolan are known for foraging in cooler weather, earlier exiting of the hive for foraging in the spring. They are known as the spring build up bees. The Carniolan colony I have is the only one that made it out of 9 last winter, it is still going strong. But it had a hard year too over 2008 winter, it never built up enough to split (well, kind of good because I only wanted one colony in case of our move to another area). Carniolan are "cooler" weather bees. Have that most wonderful and most awesome day, with great health. Cindi
Danno, I have both NWC and italians, today its cool , lol your so close to me our temps are pretty similar. but my bees are out at 10am this morning, and the carni's well there always out, rain or shine. the dark bodies must hold heat better, don't know, but ya they work in lots worse weather. so I guess its normal. you must have something else in there , carni cross or maybe a feral cross, I know I got a split that I let naturally make a queen, from a hive that swarmed and left many queen cells, I think she mated with feral due to the majority of new bees that are dark or almost black. Ferals would work every opportunity they can.
Carniolans, Russians and the "German" bees brought over by early settlers are all dark.
My Carniolan's foraged above 47 degrees all last winter.
This yard is all 2009 Wootens golden queens and all but one look about the same. This queen got tangled with something else. I'm trying to go the extra mile to get them through winter. They are alittle light but wont take much feed yet.
Danno,
The swarm that I got in late May and split when they first tried to swarm has been out big time the past two days. There are some baggies that have a little syrup left in them that I pulled out when I put in the styrene insulation in the all season inner cover and they are all over them. It has been mid 40s both days. They are still out at 6:30 pm. The pollinator beek whose hives they came from wondered if it might be one of the Australian queens he had purchased. The queen is bronze colored and the workers look Italian. All I know is they are one tough bunch. The other 5 hives are almost for sure Italian queens and they are all staying in. I hope this hives survives the winter and I can get a spit from it next spring.
Jay