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drone color?

880 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  delber 
#1 ·
Can one queen lay 2 different colored drones? I had a hive last year that swarmed on me and I never got the swarm, but it was a great hive until that point. Well one of my other hives that overwintered in this yard I was there today and saw the dark drones (from the current hive) and the orangish colored drones that look like the other hive. I know I don't have other hives with drones yet because I inspected a week ago and only had just capped drones in the other hives. So my hope is that the swarm made it through the winter and I have a chance to find and catch a swarm from them unless a queen can lay 2 different color drones. I didn't think this was possible, but I have to ask.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
#2 ·
First, keep in mind that drones drift shamelessly...

But yes, a queen can lay different colored drones. Each drone is a random assortment of her two possibilities for each gene, and one of those could be black color and one could be golden color and the drones will be a random choice of one or the other of those.
 
#3 ·
Thanks MB. I knew that drones shift everywhere and that's what I was hoping. I was hoping that the swarm was still alive and made it through winter so I had a chance of catching it once it swarmed again. I also thought that a drone was the makeup of the queen only. It being an unfertilized egg I am surprised that there are different color drones that a queen can lay. Could this be because of a hybrid (AKA "Mut") queen? She isn't "pure" anything. So perhaps the drones go back to the "pure" form of the type of bee.
 
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