Are these black bees?

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Thargor

New Bee
Joined
May 18, 2021
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Location
Cornwall
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
5
Hi, I was sure this was a small cast swarm I caught in my apiary from one of my hives but on closer inspection they are quite small bees and very dark. They do not look like my bees at all.
There was no telling how long they had been out in the open and exposed to the elements so I assumed they were just cold and hungry when I shook them into a nuc.
I will give them a week to settle in and then I will see if I can find the queen.

So my question is do bees shrink and go dark if they have been out in the cold and rain or could these quite possibly be Cornish black bees?

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Not pure Amm, I think, due to the orange-brown band; probably a variation on the local landrace, which tends to be dark-ish in much of the UK. So probably quite tough, healthy, hybrid-vigour bees. Good catch!
 
I have bees like them: they have a mixed pedigree - finest mongrels.
 
Thanks for judgment and input. If they are local mongrels they are very fine mongrels indeed and very prolific :)
 
How do you know they are prolific?
If they are a swarm from one of my hives which I highly suspect now that I know they are not Cornish black bees then they have swarmed from a hive which has 4 supers on. In my opinion I would say they are fairly prolific.
 
Anyone saying they have black bees is the same as anyone saying they have an F0 nobody has pure genetics, indeed everyone thinks they are better than anyone elce
 

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