As the weeks go by I am seeing an increasing number of bees that do not have yellow stripes on the abdomen. What is going on here?
20 percent of the population might be running without stripes. A few have been around from the beginning, but the number seems to be getting higher. Or maybe I am doing a better job of noticing.
You are not suppose to wear yellow stripes after Labor Day, or is that white? Really, if your queen was mated with a lot of different drones, then she should throw a lot of different offspring. There should be some slight differences in the bees if her mating was well rounded.
Mutts in the mix is pretty standard if your queens are bleep. :-D
...JP
Also, older bees will lose their strips and turn more of a solid black. With the flow over, they are not dieing as young, therefore more black bees.
Quote from: AllenF on September 17, 2010, 10:01:19 PM
Really, if your queen was mated with a lot of different drones, then she should throw a lot of different offspring. There should be some slight differences in the bees if her mating was well rounded.
This is good to know. I was wondering why my bees all looked so different, not just in size but in coloration. (I know the size changes w/age.) I see a lot of variation in the striping. I am guessing the variety would be a sign of a healthy hive or at least as you said a well mated queen.
Also, and forgive me if I am stating the obvious to you, I have noticed that drones often have dark abdomens with little or no striping. Some hives will throw off a surge of drones towards fall.
JC
Last year, I had one hive that was throwing about 20% of the hive as blond bees. The black parts were blond in color. Very nice looking. This year, no blond bees at all. Go figure.
I have a couple of hives where the drones are all black and the workers are striped. I have others where some of the workers are so blond they are almost transluscent! I love the variety in the hives; just another fun reason to watch them! And yes, my drones are starting to get kicked out here, too.
I got plenty of those mixers in one of my hives. some with mostly dark abdomens others that are the 'blondies' as well.
This gal really got around. lol
big Bear
snip..
The black parts were blond in color.
tecumseh:
cordovans?
No, blond like yellow hair. May have some recessive cordovan trait because of years and years of breeding, but they stood out from the color. I should have took a pic or saved one. I saved one of my black bees this year from one of my hives. All back honey bee in a very small % of one hive that I have. Another recessive trait I guess.
The stripe less bees I have might be.a little smaller than the rest. I am a little curious that their numbers are going up. I thought maybe a new queen wa in the house, but haven't seen any queen cells. Haven't seen the old queen in a while, but that is not a concern.