I've been watching the bees enter and leave the hive and there seems to be several different types. Some are small and solid black, others are black, grey and fuzzy, others are gold with black and gold banded oval on their backs, and some are banded black and gold.
The queens that came with the nucs are suppose to be hybrids of 4 bee types. Russian, Carniolian, Purvis Golden, and Canadian Buckfast. My question is, does a hybrid queen produce several different looking bees depending on what she was bred as?
Even bees derived from just one strain of bees, you will probably have bees from numerous types. Remember the queen mates with between 12 to 60 males. Even if she was artificially bred her mother and her ancestry did. Your best bet for the survival of the hives is bees that have the genetics to handle the numerous problems that we keep throwing at them.
Jim
Quote from: sawdstmakr on May 05, 2013, 01:59:54 PM
Even bees derived from just one strain of bees, you will probably have bees from numerous types. Remember the queen mates with between 12 to 60 males. Even if she was artificially bred her mother and her ancestry did. Your best bet for the survival of the hives is bees that have the genetics to handle the numerous problems that we keep throwing at them.
Jim
That's the reason I spent the extra money for these. I wanted bees that can survive the harsh New England winters. These bees are wintered over nuc colonies from Vermont. They were raised on small cell foundation and are rapidly filling out foundationless frames that I gave them. I was curious about the several different bees in the hives, whether they were the queen's offspring or if the guy may have shook some bees into the nucs. I went out this morning to look at them, it was 37 degrees with a thick layer of frost on the ground, and they were already working buzzing into and out of the hive.
37 is colder than my bees fly at. I have seen them at 43. Most of my hives if not all have very different bees in them.
Jim
Quote from: Steel Tiger on May 05, 2013, 02:11:26 PM
I went out this morning to look at them, it was 37 degrees with a thick layer of frost on the ground, and they were already working buzzing into and out of the hive.
Bees may come out in that weather if they are very thirsty when they make larva food.
It is sure that no bee can forage at that tempertature, what ever hybrid it is.
Quote from: Steel Tiger on May 05, 2013, 01:48:23 PM
The queens that came with the nucs are suppose to be hybrids of 4 bee types. Russian, Carniolian, Purvis Golden, and Canadian Buckfast. My question is, does a hybrid queen produce several different looking bees depending on what she was bred as?
Some years ago I had 5 different bee types and I let them cross. The result was quite awfull gang. Bees loose then features what we say "tame" or "domestic".
Hybrids are good bees but if you take daughters from these, the variation is from poor to good.
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The queen has two genes for color. She contributes one of these. The multiple drones she mated with each had one gene for color and all the sperm from a given drone is genetically identical (because drones only have one set of genes), while each drone is different and might have a different color gene. So how those drone color genes match up with the 50/50 chance of the queen's color genes determines the color of a given worker. The 50/50 chance of the queen's color genes (alone because drone eggs are not fertilized) determines the color of the drones. So you should have possibly two different colors of native drones (plus whatever drifts) and many possible colors of workers.
Quote from: Michael Bush on May 06, 2013, 09:17:13 AM
The queen has two genes for color. She contributes one of these. The multiple drones she mated with each had one gene for color and all the sperm from a given drone is genetically identical (because drones only have one set of genes), while each drone is different and might have a different color gene. So how those drone color genes match up with the 50/50 chance of the queen's color genes determines the color of a given worker. The 50/50 chance of the queen's color genes (alone because drone eggs are not fertilized) determines the color of the drones. So you should have possibly two different colors of native drones (plus whatever drifts) and many possible colors of workers.
:th_thumbsupup: :goodpost:
Also look at the color of the eyes of the drone.
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)