[ceebee]

so it looks like I successfully hived my swarm I picked up last week and its great watching them bring in pollen. I'm a bit curious what the dominant traits are, there are several whose stinger end of the abdomen has a good black section, quite a bit different than the Italians. the pics aren't that great, but I unfortunately have my hives in a bit of shade to help keep the neighbors ignorant a bit longer (I sided with the keep the neighbors in the dark side of the fence of letting neighbors know) but I think they should be clear enough, I'm trying to be productive, but I could probably have my arm twisted and sit there and wath them bring in pollen for a few hours, but then its hard not to open it up and peek at what's happening inside too haha.

 

[Joseph Clemens]

Honey bees in the U.S.A. cannot be reliably identified as to predominance of subspecies by coloration. Color is a trait that has its own hierarchy of dominance - different than most other honey bee traits. Wikipedia on Honey Bee. Also, from Glenn Apiaries, details of honey bee genetics.

 

[enjambres]

Pure-bred mutts would be my guess. I say that with great affection, after all my three hives are the same. And over the course of nearly the year I've had them, I've been surprised by the wide intra-colony variations, and the variations in both color and size, over time. My three colonies are all from different swarms.

Enjambres

 

[biggraham610]

Im with you Enjambres, I watch bees coming and going from my hives that look totally different. Some look Italian, and some are almost black. I dont care what they are, I am assuming that the darker ones are from some local feral breeding in the works. Regardless, Other than my Llewellin Setters, Mutts have always been my best dogs, why not the Bees too........

 

[Bees In Miami]

You hived a swarm? They're mutts, and love them all the more for it! Just don't love them to death...lol. Let them do what they need to do.

 

[ceebee]

watching a little more, either some of the packages I have next to the hives have accepted some drift from the swarm hive, or they have some of that cool coloration too. My first real hive check today (besides my quick hopping in to check if the queen was released) showed eggs in my hives, my other two hives are in an area that got some harder weather so I didn't check those ones too much. but I'm excited, maybe I'll try to requeen my packages off the swarm hive, the size of this swarm this early hopefully they should have some good strong genetics.