How long before Cordovan trait goes away?

[Sir Stungalot]

I was thinking about ordering some Cordovan Queens this year. I have a fair number of strains in my yards (Like to keep it mixed up) and was not planning on isolation. Just wondering, for those of you have done this...how long before the color trait seemed to no longer be in existance in your yards? Did it ever pop back up later as the genetics moved through the colonies?
No one around here has them (Cordovans), I have never seen a live one. Just thought it would be fun to see them.
Any recomendations as to where to get some?
Thanks!

[tom]

Howdy if you are looking for cordovans try Koehnen and sons in california they have some that are a straberry blonde color. Thats the workers they send to me with my carni queens and if they lay like the carni queens then you may have to tay on top of them because they are some really good bees.

TOM

[Michael Bush]

>how long before the color trait seemed to no longer be in existance in your yards? Did it ever pop back up later as the genetics moved through the colonies?

It's a recessive trait.  Once you've introduced it you'll probably have about 1/4 of them with it from then on.  Like blonde hair or blue eyes in people.

[NWIN Beekeeper]

[Did it ever pop back up later as the genetics moved through the colonies?]

While it can, the rarity of the line makes this less usual.
About the 1/4 of the drones will also carry the trait, but they have to mate with a queen with the gene too.

So it can happen, but its not likely as you might hope.

I do find a mix of very blonde drones in my area, its not from any of my queen lines, but you never know what other beekeepers in the area are importing.
Great, and I guess simple, minds think a like, or not much - something like that...
....and simple isn't a bad trait in the beekeeping world.

[Sir Stungalot]

Tom! Thanks so much for the lead...that is EXACTLY what I was looking for!
Michael and NWIN...yes, I guess what you say is pretty much what I figured. Since I like to keep my lines mixed, I thought it would be interesting to simply see a recessive trait in an uncontrolled situation...how often it would randomly show up. Kind of give me an idea in real-life bee genetics of what, and how fast a trait might be fixed in an apaiary.
Thanks......