Darker and Lighter Colored Bees

[Scott Derrick]

I was tending an out yard that I have in Swansea SC last weekend and noticed that the two hives I had there were very different in color. It was dramatic to me. I'm sure folks like Mike Bush are use to darker colored bees but I'm not yet. The darker color bees came from a turn of the century farm house chimney. They had been there for years and years. I pulled them about two years ago. Last year they didn't do too well but this year they are really going at it. The lighter colored bees are from a package that was put in last year. I'd appreciate any comments that you veterans can offer about the darker bees.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rsderrick/DifferentColorBees

[JP]

It seems that the darker ones are dark throughout the colony, I find ferals are usually mixed in color, mutt like. You may have two different races there. Those are pretty cool, the dark ones.


...JP

[Rich V]

I have a hive that is very dark. It is from a feral hive that I pulled out of a oak tree that fell during a storm.

[Moonshae]

Michael has some amazing pics of the blackest bees I've ever seen (pictures of). The cutout I did recently had a mix of lights and darks. Very gentle bees.

[watercarving]

My dad used to have some feral bees that were small and really dark. They were the meanest honey bees I've ever seen. They'd pop you for thinking about looking at their hive.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

I believe mixed hives are best as they show flexibility. You're more likely to see the benefits of all the different breeds of be working in one hive.

[Brian D. Bray]

My dad used to have some feral bees that were small and really dark. They were the meanest honey bees I've ever seen. They'd pop you for thinking about looking at their hive.

Sounds like Black Germans--something you don't find any more.  They were always hot.

[heaflaw]

"Sounds like Black Germans--something you don't find any more.  They were always hot"

I know an old beekeeper who is now 96 who remembers when people in this area first got Italians.  Soon, all beekeepers had Italians and no longer wanted the Germans.  They became the feral bees.  But I assume the Italians mated with the feral Germans until there became no pure Germans left.  Varroa probably finished off almost all of what was left of the remaining German genetics in feral bees. 

[HAB]

Enjoyed the pics and vids.  Hope to be able to post my first ones soon. :)

[jimmy]

The bees that I managed to capture yesterday are pure black on their extreme rear. When I looked for the queen all of the looked long, pointed and very black at least an 1/8". strange looking from my other bees .
Being a newbie I just have to with what everyone else says.

[Ross]

Mine are pretty mixed, even in the same hive....

[the kid]

A few days ago I was looking in one of my new hives ,,,,  was told they are
Carniolans ,, I thought I dropped the queen ( long story )  but any way I had started looking on the combs and found the blackest queen ,, this girl is almost jet black ,, just brood from her so dont know what they are like yet ..
the kid

[Cindi]

Black bees, cool.  I got 10 New World Carniolan queens from California a couple of weeks ago.  Made nucs, gave two queens away to my bee course instructor who will later on trade me back two of his queens that he will be breeding.  Requeened a colony, made some more nucs.

These were the blackest queens that I have ever seen, black, from head to toe, looked pretty cool.  In the queen cages the queens looked like they were baby queens or something, if I didn't know better, it would scare the dickens out of me, thinking how on earth can something so small lay eggs.

I made the nucs, gave the queens and checked for queenright colonies day before yesterday.  The nucs were made 2, one week apart.  The queens in the first set of nucs were enormous!!!  I was even wondering if they were the same queen.  The queen was fattened up, full of eggs, and laying her brains out!!!  The second set of nucs, made a week later (bad weather here, so couldn't do them all at the same time).  Well, those queens are still tiny, like they were in the queen cage.  Judging by how big the first nuc queens were, I know that they will increase in size by at least double.  I was shocked at how big the queens had become when released from cage.

When the first brood hatches in a couple of weeks, I will take pictures.  I bet those are gonna be really black bees.  I will know for sure when I am taking pictures of bees on my flowers this summer who is doing what, hee, hee.  Have the most glorious day, Cindi

[Brian D. Bray]

Black German bees are even darker than NWC or Russians, even the thorax was darker than the other subspecies.  The abdomen bands, if any, were very narrow.  If you were to see a Black German you would immediately recongize the differences.

[Michael Bush]

The darker bees all have similar characteristics:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesraces.htm

The darker ones would be the Carniolans, the AMM, the Caucasians and probably the Russians.