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My Son and I am new to bee keeping. we started our first two hives this year and also picked up a swarm. Decided my son needed to start bee keeping when he started following bees home and telling me where they lived. Last week we changed out the feeders and added full ones to the 3 active hives. I got lazy and left the NUC that I use to carry frames and feeders on the porch. Of course the bees found them. About half the bees visiting this feeder are pure black. They are a touch smaller than the other bees too. I snapped some good pics that I'll add here too. I did some searching last night and found A.M. Mellifera listed as German Bees and as British Black bees.
I am interested to know more about the nature and production of this bee. The British sites were about Conservation since this species nearly met extinction there and the German sites were in German. Normally this would not be a problem since my dear wife is German but she had to get up at 04:45 to go to work and would not like me getting her up at 23:30 to translate a YouTube video.
One thing both my son and I had noticed is these bees are very Hygienic. After climbing down the feeder, they would spent a few minutes cleaning them selves before flying away. Also if the gorged themselves on the sugar water they would stretch out a bit and then show some lighter, grey/tan lines. see the second picture.
My son has started the bee lining process, but is having difficulty getting the initial direction on these bees. Its hard to follow them through the trees in our back yard.
I am interested to know more about the nature and production of this bee. The British sites were about Conservation since this species nearly met extinction there and the German sites were in German. Normally this would not be a problem since my dear wife is German but she had to get up at 04:45 to go to work and would not like me getting her up at 23:30 to translate a YouTube video.
One thing both my son and I had noticed is these bees are very Hygienic. After climbing down the feeder, they would spent a few minutes cleaning them selves before flying away. Also if the gorged themselves on the sugar water they would stretch out a bit and then show some lighter, grey/tan lines. see the second picture.
My son has started the bee lining process, but is having difficulty getting the initial direction on these bees. Its hard to follow them through the trees in our back yard.

