Pictorial Honeybee Identification Guide?

[lcl]

I am a new beekeeper that is looking for a pictorial honeybee guide. I was unable to find any side-by-side pictures of the various honeybee races. Please let me know of a good resource (printed or online) that could help me identify the most common honeybee races.

Thank you,

LCL

[TattooedBeek]

Buckfast


Russian


Italian


Carniolan

[TattooedBeek]

German

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

There is no way to tell the difference! There is way to much emphasis today about breeds of bees....its all $$$ hype!
Mike

[SwedeBee1970]

The 3rd picture looks like Cordovan 2 me. Their queens are orange-yellow.

[mythomane]

There is no way to tell the difference! There is way to much emphasis today about breeds of bees....its all $$$ hype!
Mike

There are many different bee breeds. Even a beginner can tell the difference between a Russian and Carniolan easily.

[Joseph Clemens]

Honeybee color, does not necessarily, indicate much about its heritage, other than what color its most recent parents contributed. Most, if not all honeybees in the USA today, are wide mixtures of genetics from many different subspecies of honeybee, even some that are hardly even thought much about, such as Apis mellifera ssp. lamarckii. Curiously enough, genes from that Egyptian subspecies exist in many of our modern bees, yet I've never heard anybody call their bees, Egyptian instead of Italian, Caucasian, or Carniolan. Today, in the USA, most descriptors of honeybee type, such as if I were calling my bees, "Cordovan Italian", would simply mean that my bees (or at least my queens) are the lighter golden tan color that the Cordovan genes impart to lighter colored bees, such as share the coloration brought to the mix from Apis mellifera ssp. ligustica. Calling them, "Cordovan Italian" might also imply that they also exhibit some of the other behavioral characteristics traditionally associated with the Italian subspecies. And though the Cordovan trait, which is only a recessive color trait (like blond hair in humans), can be bred into any variety of honeybee capable of breeding with Apis mellifera, I've rarely seen it offered in any other than bees carrying the lighter Italian colored exoskeleton.

[wadehump]

I like the mutt line the best,they will survive the winter and they will make surplus honey