I live in Connecticut and haven't seen much honey bee action, esp. with the spring we had and rainy weather. But today I went across the street there is an area of milkweed and Queen Anne's Lace and Red Clover and Goldenrod. The area was much larger but unfortunatley the school felt the need to only leave a tiny patch this summer!!! It's a great spot for insect watching and taking pictures. Anyway I noticed The Milkweed finally blooming insects all over it including honey bees, two color varieties of honey bees visiting the flowers. One rather dull and ash grey with black stripes and the other golden yellow with black stripes. Are these color varieties of the same hive or maybe different race? Also noticed they were getting a little stuck on the flowers, and a few of them were on the leaves trying to wipe pieces of the flower that stuck to their feet. So anyone ever have Milkweed Honey?
DAve
They could very well be from the same hive. Bee genetics get rapidly intertwined when hives of various subspecies are in close proximity.
The ash grey and black stripes is indicative of bees from Caucas area of the Black Seas, aka Caucasian. This color is also seen in Russian and Carnailon strains but with a bolder grey color.
The yellow and black stripes is indicative of the Italian or Cardovian bee of the Meditrainian region.