How do you handle this question?

[BerkeyDavid]

I recently sold a batch of queens to a guy, who was happy with them but he had the following question: "Why are these queens different colors?"
About half were black, 25% were yellow and 25% were what I call "Black Butts" (which are my favorite).
I told him it showed they were well bred mutts, exactly what I had promised. They were all grafted from the same queen on the same day, but each queen mates with at least 7 drones or more, so these girls had different fathers. And I pointed out that if you looked in the hive of the queen that I grafted from you would see drones of different colors which was one of the things I look for in choosing a queen to use for drafting.
So just wondering what the rest of you breeders out there get and what you think of this.

[Broke-T]

I raised my first queens this year. I used a cpl of queens that I got from Purvis Bro last year as this years queen mothers. I have seen the same thing from them, some queens fat and yellow other long and black. Both kind are from same queen. I see no difference in quality of either but the dark ones are a pain to find.

I have read where a lot of people think the dark ones are more disease resistant but don't know that for sure yet. Plan on freezing brood this fall to check for hygenic behavior and may see a color difference then.

Johnny

[Oldtimer]

Most people in my country expect all the queens to look the same, unless it was discussed prior to purchase. Pure italian and a few "black tips" would be OK in the same batch, but if we mixed light with pretty dark we'd be liable to get complaints.
Easily solved though I just use breeders that mated so they give consistant results, ie the drones happened to be all similar. You can actually get a feel for this when choosing the breeder just by looking at the bees in the hive. If there's a mix of colors, (without considering drifting), then the queens from her will also be a mix.

But for my own bees, I don't care what color they are, I go by results. but if breeding queens for sale, you have to offer what the customer wants. (Rightly or wrongly!!).

[Michael Bush]

I tell them it's a good promiscuous queen. Always a good thing. :) Actually I just charge extra for specific colors...

[turboterry544]

Well if he don't want them w the black but's call I will come get them.