Tiger Queens

[max2]

Tiger Queens
I have mentioned these a number of times.
They can be on occasions rather shortlived but at the moment I have a number of hives with Tigers which are superior to any other queen.
They are gentle, amazing producers and very pretty.
Only one drawback - they are more difficult to find in a strong hive.
Anybody else have tigers?

[Michael Bush]

I often have tiger striped queens.  Sometimes I get worker striped queens.  They are REALLY hard to find.  The tiger striped queens tend to be good queens.  But all of them are sometimes great queens.  If you breed from the black ones you get more striped ones...

[The15thMember]

I have several tiger-striped queens right now, and I haven't found any particular correlation between their color and their productivity or lifespan.  The one colony has a queen where the worker bees are mostly dark, and that colony does seem to exhibit really nice traits.  They put up a lot of honey, they manage their mites well, and the bees are very docile and easy to work.  I also have a colony that has a fully black queen, the first one I've ever had, and that colony has done very poorly this year and will likely be requeened first thing next spring.  But having only ever had the one black queen, I'm not willing to say that her color is in indicator of poor colony quality just yet.     

[max2]

" They put up a lot of honey, they manage their mites well, and the bees are very docile and easy to work"

I may put in an extra effort and breed a few more queens from this hive.
The " manage mites well" will be important in the future.
Most of my hives are Italian and look Italian. I did introduce some Caucasian queens a very long time ago and I can tell their influence as soon as I open a hive - a lot more propolis.
One of my yards is fairly isolated and I have enough drones to flood the area.
If I was younger I would shift some of these hives into a more remote area.

[Bob Wilson]

Can someone put up a picture of a tiger queen? What are they? A specific stock like Italian or Buckfast?

[beesnweeds]

I've never heard of tiger queens.  I have Billiard Queens, they come in stripes and solids.

[Lesgold]

Hi Max,

I have some of these in a small bee yard about 20km from home. They have slowly developed over the years. Obviously some of the local drones have been carrying this genetic trait. As you said, the bees are quiet and produce quite a bit of honey. They are  different to my mongrels in the home yard. Should try to introduce some of those characteristics into some of my energetic girls.

[max2]

Can someone put up a picture of a tiger queen? What are they? A specific stock like Italian or Buckfast?

I have no idea how to post pictures here.
I don't even own a mobile phone!
The stripes are a dead give away. They are  ( for an old bloke) quite difficult to spot.

[max2]

Hi Max,

I have some of these in a small bee yard about 20km from home. They have slowly developed over the years. Obviously some of the local drones have been carrying this genetic trait. As you said, the bees are quiet and produce quite a bit of honey. They are  different to my mongrels in the home yard. Should try to introduce some of those characteristics into some of my energetic girls.

Interesting, Les.
I have given on of those queens to a mate who has a yard close to my homeyard.
He think that I'm very generous  as this Tiger is also queen of his best hive....but I have my reasons

[beesnweeds]

Information on striped (tiger) queens.  I've had my share of carniolan (striped) queens over the years.  They are excellent bees, just not as disease resistant as Russians for me.
https://beeinformed.org/2012/04/02/queen-bee-identification/

[The15thMember]

Can someone put up a picture of a tiger queen? What are they? A specific stock like Italian or Buckfast?

To me, "tiger" basically means Carniolan colored, a queen that instead of being solid orange or solid black has bands of brown on her abdomen, similar to a worker, but usually less distinct.  My queens are not purebred Carniolans though, they are just local mutts expressing that phenotype.  It's kind of like how in horses pinto is a color but Paint is a breed.     

[Ben Framed]

I think I remember JP and Schawee finding Tiger queens sometimes in their videos but I don?t remember seeing them clearly enough to remember what they looked like. I always thought they were referring to a queen that has the same look as workers. (With the stripes) I simply took this for granted but I don?t know for sure what >they< meant. lol

Phillip

[Michael Bush]

Some bees have straight line stripes like a worker.  A tiger striped queen has stripes, but they are not straight like a worker.  But they are distinctively two toned.  It's just a description.  The range of what people mean when they describe it that way is probably pretty wide.  But I would use it to distinguish solid colored queens (usually black or yelowish brown)  from two toned queens.  And I wouldn't use "tiger" in describing the ones with the straight lines like a worker.  I'd call that a "worker striped queen".  :)

[max2]

I checked some nuc's today and found another Tiger - definitely not a " worker striped queen"

[Ben Framed]

I checked some nuc's today and found another Tiger - definitely not a " worker striped queen"

With the commentary on this subject, it would be interesting to >see< the variety of what our members are naming Tiger Stripe queens.