Drones carrying the recessive gene causing white eye and whit thorax .

[G4WIL]

Having a colony with the above drones , I’ve noticed they have disappeared!
The Queen is a couple of years old .
I can’t help wondering ( seeing that the colony still has heathy drones ) how this can be when the Queen has laid the unfertilised eggs for both types of drone !


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[simonf]

I have a colony with white eye drones, quite a lot

 

[G4WIL]

I have a colony with white eye drones, quite a lot

Very odd ! First time I have come across these in 30 odd years of beekeeping !
I know white eyed drones are blind so drifting ( as drones do ) can be ruled out !


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Bakerbee]

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...FjAAegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw1Z4wMvf_kWv4WkVtkCYo9u

Interesting display of genes in picture to help understand i think.

 

[mickbees23]

Having a colony with the above drones , I’ve noticed they have disappeared!
The Queen is a couple of years old .
I can’t help wondering ( seeing that the colony still has heathy drones ) how this can be when the Queen has laid the unfertilised eggs for both types of drone !

Egg may be unfertilised but it has a mix of chromosomes I think. Drones have 16 and females 32 so a drone can have a mix of any 16 from 32 chromosomes from the queen. Not all will contain the white eyed mix.

I may be talking complete rubbish as well and somebody with a better understanding of the genetics may be able to give better detail.

Cheers, Mick

 

[beeno]

Hi Guys, I was just wondering, if caused by recessive gene, why on the two occasions I have seen a white eyed drone in my colonies there was only one. Now, I guess it is because they get rid of them. It would be a mix of genes as she mates with on average 13 drones.

 

[G4WIL]

Hi Guys, I was just wondering, if caused by recessive gene, why on the two occasions I have seen a white eyed drone in my colonies there was only one. Now, I guess it is because they get rid of them. It would be a mix of genes as she mates with on average 13 drones.

Drones are the result of unfertilised eggs ! Not of the multiple makings have any influence over the genetics of a drone .


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Beefriendly]

There are, apparently, several eye colour mutations in drones, the light ones (white eyes) are known as ivory, cream and snow. Due to malfunctions in one of several places in the enzymatic process of eye pigments.
It usually means that they appear normal at birth but develop "white" as time progresses. They are blind.... so get lost when as they take normal flights...
Possibly the reason that although about half of the drones a queen carrying these defects produces will eventually be white eyed, so few are seen.
I suspect there is more too it than I have read...so please don't take this as gospel.

 

[Fusion_power]

Random mutations can occur such that a single bee inherits a change that causes color differences. There is an article you can dig up that discusses production of colors in bees. The best I recall, there are three basic biopaths, one for eye color, one for body base color, and one for color of stripes. Each of these biopaths can be modified to cause unusual color variants. A guy in the U.S. got a photo of a black and white worker bee a couple of years ago. It was otherwise normal and had normal colored eyes.

 

[Popparand]

Random mutations can occur such that a single bee inherits a change that causes color differences. There is an article you can dig up that discusses production of colors in bees. The best I recall, there are three basic biopaths, one for eye color, one for body base color, and one for color of stripes. Each of these biopaths can be modified to cause unusual color variants. A guy in the U.S. got a photo of a black and white worker bee a couple of years ago. It was otherwise normal and had normal colored eyes.

So does that mean that only drones and not workers risk losing their sight?