Feral bees in hive

[trapperbob]

I checked my hive today this is the second time since putting package in hive I arrived late and the bees all seemed to be home. In itself no real problem since they didn't seem to be to upset at the inspection. They seem to have 4 frames almost completly drawn out and 2 of those have capped brood in them 2 others are in the beginning stages of being drawn out the other 4 are still just untouched plastic foundation. So I feel as if the hive is doing well if someone thinks otherwise please chime in. What really seemed strange to me was that there seemed to be a few maybe a dozen little black bees they looked much like the little german bees that my father had years ago I have Italions so I thought this was strange they seemed to be doing what everyone else in the hive was doing and didn't act as if they were robbing as a matter of fact I think they actually brought stuff in. Is this a normal kind of thing or what?

[Brian D. Bray]

Most queen raisers do open mating.  In the Gulf Southeast coasts alot of it is done on the offshore islands.  In mating areas the queen mates with a multitude of drones.  Your queen may have been inseminated by every type (subspecies) of honey bee used in the USA.  The variety of the young reflects the various fathers.  Do Not Be Alarmed everything is SNAFU.