Before anyone advises me that breeding for a particular color is counter productive I will tell you why.
Soon in my queen rearing experiments I will want to produce my own drones for open breeding. Since the cordovan color is only expressed from a mating of a queen with the gene and a cordovan drone, and since a cordovan queen produces 100% cordovan drones - If I breed from cordovan queens, and use drone hives that are headed by cordovan queens I should be better able to estimate how often my queens mate with my drones by counting cordovan workers. That should give some idea of how placement of drone hives and mating nucs works. So, the cordovan color is a learning tool.
And it looks cool.
But I still want to produce good quality/not-inbred queens.
And to kick off the list - Russell Apiaries - The source of the ones I have used as breeders so far.
Soon in my queen rearing experiments I will want to produce my own drones for open breeding. Since the cordovan color is only expressed from a mating of a queen with the gene and a cordovan drone, and since a cordovan queen produces 100% cordovan drones - If I breed from cordovan queens, and use drone hives that are headed by cordovan queens I should be better able to estimate how often my queens mate with my drones by counting cordovan workers. That should give some idea of how placement of drone hives and mating nucs works. So, the cordovan color is a learning tool.
And it looks cool.
But I still want to produce good quality/not-inbred queens.
And to kick off the list - Russell Apiaries - The source of the ones I have used as breeders so far.