Hive with two colors of bees

[dealhound]

I have a question that I have not seen addressed, although it surely may have been.  If so, I apologize.

I have a colony of bees that is starting its second year.  They have gotten through the winter fine and are now reproducing at a rapid rate.  I have noticed on my early inspections and by watching the entrance that there are two distinctly different colors of worker bees from this one hive.  One is a very dark bee with little golden color and the other is a very golden colored honeybee (much more to what I consider the norm).   The queen has remained unchanged since last year and is laying well.

My question is:  what explains the two distinctly different colored workers.  Is it that the dark bees are the over winter bees and the golden bees are this years brood?  Is it likely that they have requeened themselves, resulting in a new stock.  Or is this normal and expected for some other reason unknown to me?

Thanks for your responses!

Tim

[Understudy]

Blame the baby daddy.

Chances are your queen is using a different sperm sac from one of the many drones she mated with. Nothing odd here.


Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Joseph Clemens]

Queens most usually mate with quite a few drones. If those drones contribute genes for color variation, then depending on which drone's sperm are used, there are going to be quite an assortment of genetics expressed in the worker bee population, including color.

Just because she's an Italian queen, and she may have mated with some Italian drones, does not mean that she hasn't mated with non-Italian drones. Which drone's sperm fertilizes which eggs is one of those complex mathematical problems, outside of my league.