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Following because I have one queen that looks like that as well. Certainly not africanized but she looks different than every other queen I have.
I don’t think you can identify if a queen is Africanized by looks, but I am not an expert. You will be able to identify it by feelI guess what I'm worried about is if she is an africanized queen being the source was a wild swarm. Right now, the colony isn't aggressive but the brood nest is only 3 frames wide.
That looks exactly like my queens, but they are quite calm and overwinter well in Illinois, so not a lot if any African.The crescent shaped stripes is common in eastern European races like Anatolian, Carniolan, Caucasian and so on...
queens with south african genes incl. a.m.scutellata usually looks like this:
View attachment 54577
+1That looks exactly like my queens, but they are quite calm and overwinter well in Illinois, so not a lot if any African.
My opinion is African genes only matter if the bees get mean, or they don't overwinter where you are. Bee races are all mixed up so any bee color can be any genetics, unless you buy only artificially inseminated queens.
I guess I do the same thing.. Most of my bees are mutts from wild swarms..When you catch unknown swarms you call them muts. Most of us that allow our bees to open mate should call them muts , after that observation of their habits determines their value
The crescent shaped stripes is common in eastern European races like Anatolian, Carniolan, Caucasian and so on...
queens with south african genes incl. a.m.scutellata usually looks like this:
View attachment 54577