HSC after 11 days

[flathead]

[Michael Bush]

Looking good.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

Looks like they are not happy with their queen.

Are you going to leave the queen cell?

[flathead]

<Are you going to leave the queen cell?>


Its because of the HSC, I guess. They must have been displeased with her initial reluctance to lay in the plastic.

I was surprised when I saw it, held the frame for a few seconds and slid it back in.

I have never been so interested in something as I am in beekeeping.

[Jeffzhear]

Great Picture...what kind of camera?

[inga]

Just curious... This is such a clear picture that I wonder what race of bees these are.

We just bought a couple of hives, and we were told the queens were "mongrels" (i.e. local queens). Most of the bees look much like those in the picture, except perhaps a little darker. Some others have no gold color on them at all. The hive & super had remnants of newspaper between the boxes. So I'm wondering if it was a combined hive, and the black ones are from a different queen. The current one we saw looks like she has a couple bands of dark gold and the rest very dark grey.

[flathead]

inga writes:<I wonder what race of bees these are.>

Well Inga, we too have been wondering. We ordered 4 packages thru our club just to try the HSC. The order was for italian bees but they look different from my others.

Maybe Minnesota Hygenic?

[summersetretrievers]

We had a hive of New World Carnolian but it swarmed. The new queen would have mated with local (feral?) drones. Bee's this spring in that hive look like yours. They are longer in body than my other bee's and have that black tip at the end of their body that yours do.
Cindy

[inga]

Ours actually seem to have a little more black at the end of the body. But most of them still have two gold body segments.

I suppose it doesn't matter what they are, as long as they're healthy & bring in lots of honey.

[bluegrass]

I have hives that the bees are different colors in...some are all black, some mostly gold and then some striped. I haven't ever really thought about it much; My only thought is that these are queens that have mated with local drones of mixed breed and it is showing in the workforce.

[inga]

I have hives that the bees are different colors in...some are all black, some mostly gold and then some striped. I haven't ever really thought about it much; My only thought is that these are queens that have mated with local drones of mixed breed and it is showing in the workforce.

Yes, our hives have bees with different colors in the same hive -- some totally black and some gold and black. I wondered about that ... thought maybe one hive was combined before we got it, but I'm beginning to think that the queens just mated with differen drones ...