Adopted bees?

Beagle23 · Apr 17, 2017

I was inspecting the hive yesterday looking for queen cells (I'm becoming increasingly anxious about my first swarm). I noticed that there were a number of worker bees that stood out. My bees are almost uniformly black, whereas the bees that grabbed my attention were only about 30% black, mostly orange.

At first I thought the hive was being robbed, but after watching for a while it was evident that the new bees were carrying out worker duties. I thought maybe there had been a change of queen but I Id'd the old queen (she's distinctive because she has a rearmost left leg missing). Could it be that the new bees have come from another colony and been allowed to join? Is this common?

enrico · Apr 17, 2017

Not all bees emerge the same colour, multiple father's spreads the genes.
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JWF · Apr 17, 2017

It's not impossible for foreign bees to beg entry to another hive. It's also possible that one of the drones your queen mated with was carrying genes for such colour and sperm from that drone is now being used.

But as your queen is injured, it's entirely possible that she has been superseded and you currently have a 2 queen hive.

enrico · Apr 17, 2017

Good Point JWF . 2 queen hive very possible.
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pargyle · Apr 17, 2017

Both above very likely ... did you see any uncapped queen cells ? Usual indication that you have a new queen .. although they can pull them down if they don't like them on the comb.

I have local mongrels with open mated queens and there are all sorts of shapes sizes and colours of bees in my hives ... just shows the variety of bees that are kept locally and the resultant drone pool. I'm not that concerned about it ... my bees are mongrels and the queens are clearly tarts - obviously looking for the biggest and best drones !!

Beagle23 · Apr 17, 2017

Thanks for the replies.

I've seen no queen cells of any kind, and I'm pretty sure the missing leg isn't such an issue as she was missing it when I received my original NUC pack.

I'll continue to monitor, I suppose that if I start to see very young workers of the same colour then the drone theory is right, whereas if the numbers start to drop maybe it was a one-off event.

Really is fascinating. There always seems to be something going on.

JWF · Apr 17, 2017

I thought they measured the size of the cell with their back legs, to determine if they needed to lay drone or worker eggs? Or is that the front legs?