Can Bee species really be so different?

[Erichalfbee]

I've got it? bucks are kept in bigger boxes and on bigger frames sooooo! They have more pollen and honey stored no need to forage, they can sit back consume and look on watching the black girls with a rye I told you so grin.

Could be. They have done the work while the going is good so no need to go out in the pouring rain.

 

[Wilco]

Could be. They have done the work while the going is good so no need to go out in the pouring rain.

So you're saying we've got a lazy British workforce?

 

[user 819]

May be not lazy but the workforce numbers/colony strength may have a baring on the quantity or quality of forage collected.

 

[Finman]

I've got it? bucks are kept in bigger boxes and on bigger frames sooooo! They have more pollen and honey stored no need to forage, they can sit back consume and look on watching the black girls with a rye I told you so grin.

Jep. They are waching TV when it is raining. They are different.

 

[CaptainCymru]

Today is absolutely chucking it down, again lots of activity ,I think I'm going to take a split from these dark bees providing they over winter well.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have noticed, at this time of year at least, that it’s the bees with the least stores that work the hardest irrespective of colour.
Perhaps a small black bee can carry less nectar than a large orange one?

 

[Finman]

Perhaps a small black bee can carry less nectar than a large orange one?

Mellifera races are very similar size.

How much they carry honey, it depends pastures, how fast they get their belly full. Then they must fly to home, how long distance. Next, how long the nectar stay in flowers and flowers arr full. If foragers clean the nectar from flowers in couple of hours, the rest of day they get nothing.

When you have 10 hives in apiary, there are allways "lazy" hives and "busy" hives, even if they are daughters from the same hive.

My best hives are allways big, and mostly they are hybrids between Italian queen x Carniolan drones.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Mellifera races are very similar size.

How much they carry honey, it depends pastures, how fast they get their belly full. Then they must fly to home, how long distance. Next, how long the nectar stay in flowers and flowers arr full. If foragers clean the nectar from flowers in couple of hours, the rest of day they get nothing.

When you have 10 hives in apiary, there are allways "lazy" hives and "busy" hives, even if they are daughters from the same hive.

My best hives are allways big, and mostly they are hybrids between Italian queen x Carniolan drones.

I should have added a to my post
It was a joke.
There is a real divide between orange and black bees in some quarters on the forum.
I keep both.
I’m a hobby keeper.
A bee is a bee

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It was a joke.
There is a real divide between orange and black bees in some quarters on the forum.

Which is an even bigger joke

 

[Finman]

I should have added a to my post
It was a joke.

Quite many believe jokes and many more love humbug.

 

[Big ears]

I've got it? bucks are kept in bigger boxes and on bigger frames sooooo! They have more pollen and honey stored no need to forage, they can sit back consume and look on watching the black girls with a rye I told you so grin.

Simpler answer . They’re from Devon!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Simpler answer . They’re from Devon!!

I have one from Germany

 

[Swarm]

Today is absolutely chucking it down, again lots of activity ,I think I'm going to take a split from these dark bees providing they over winter well.

Well worth the effort IMO. Keep the hard working ones. Bees at the apiary today were all busy piling in with both Ivy and Balsam despite the wind and rain or the fact their stores are more than healthy.

 

[Big ears]

I have one from Germany

I meant buckfast bees sorry not black ones like our hard working Cornish ones

 

[Erichalfbee]

I meant buckfast bees sorry not black ones like our hard working Cornish ones

I have some black ones from Westest Wales and some from heaven knows where. Tiny black bees. And some orange bees from Germany and Gloucestershire Just to clear things up.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Well worth the effort IMO. Keep the hard working ones. Bees at the apiary today were all busy piling in with both Ivy and Balsam despite the wind and rain or the fact their stores are more than healthy.

Watched some of mine bringing in ivy pollen today the wind has been blowing a hoola and cold on my ears, still feeding and some of the hives are humming.

 

[Sutty]

Flying and bringing in pollen at 10C, seems to be their threshold temperature at the moment.

 

[CaptainCymru]

Current scene at dark bee hive , still hitting the pollen hard !

 

[Swarm]

The other thing to keep in your mind is these bees selected you.

 

[Poly Hive]

My 2nd year I bought two NZ queens and we called them the teddy bears. When it was cool our black bees were working hard and the TB's were sitting at home. So the answer to the OP is yes.