[CentralPAguy]

When I order Italian Queens or Italian packages, the queens are golden brown and are easy to pick out when looking for her. However her daughter queens sort of blend in with the worker bees even though she is larger. Their abdomens have stripes. I have been thru this one hive of mine multiple times and I know that she is in there as I can see the larvae and brood. My eyes aren't so good at seeing eggs.

So if I wanted to raise the golden brown queens and not the striped varieties, how might I accomplish it.

When the queen breeders are raising queens, do they get rid of their mutt queens and only ship the gold/brown ones as Italians -- Thanks.

 

[habutti]

CentralPAguy, you must keep in mind that although the queen may (or may not) be pure bred Italian, most of the time they (the queens) are open mated, meaning that they may get semen from different drones (Russians, Italians, etc) so every fertile egg that this mated queen lays is 50% Italian (if the queen in question is pure) and 50% whatever the drone that provided the semen was. The best way to have here daughters looking like her is by using Instrumental Insemination (II) this will increase your chances.
Good luck