Queen Colour

[philinacoma]

Hi

What assumptions can be made as to the genetics and type of bee based upon the colour of the queen?

For instance I performed a cutout a couple of weeks ago and the queen was a golden-bronze colour and I caught a swarm today where the queen was jet black.

[OzBuzz]

You can take a rough guesstimate i guess - if the Queen is lighter she probably has some italian in her - darker and she probably has some carniolan or caucasian

All of the swarms i have picked up so far have lighter queens - one is almost pure blond but she produces burr comb like nothing else and they're quite hot!

[tecumseh]

philinacoma writes:
What assumptions can be made as to the genetics and type of bee based upon the colour of the queen?

tecumseh:
since half the genetic material is derived from the multiple drones that mated with a given queen (of what ever color) many of the productivity, workability questions and behavioral question will be TOTALLY unknown.  You could have reasonable assumed when you first began each of these take outs that the color of the drone in each hive directly reflects  the color of the queen in the wall (or tree or whatever).

You might assume the golden colored queen is an Italian although the darker bee MIGHT also conform to this same assumption since this 'race' of bee varies from Cordovan (double recessive genes for the black coloration in your typical yellow Italian so the black in your typical Italian is yellow or red) to black.
 

 

[Pete]

I also got a really deep bronze one last week and the bees are quite dark orange. The bees are smaller and very friendly. I wish i photographed her when i had the chance...but it was a bit of a calamity at the time. :)