Queen question

[Antipodes]

I captured a swarm Saturday (not from one of my colonies) and the queen is very dark, almost black all over.

Others I have seen are not so dark, certainly not like this one.

I'm curious if it indicates anything by way of her strain or anything else? Her daughters look quite regular coloured for around here.

 

[For want of a better word]

I captured a swarm Saturday (not from one of my colonies) and the queen is very dark, almost black all over.

Others I have seen are not so dark, certainly not like this one.

I'm curious if it indicates anything by way of her strain or anything else? Her daughters look quite regular coloured for around here.

Tasmania has a cohort of naturalised dark european honeybee ( Apis mellifera mellifera) that are almost black in colouration.
You also have a yellow honeybee from the Mediterranean area of europe that seems to thrive only in the coastal areas.

As with the UK there are a few uninformed keepers of bees who would claim that the dark bee has disappeared.
I expect you have had the fortune to have captured a swarm of these non existant bees!!!

 

[B+.]

I captured a swarm Saturday (not from one of my colonies) and the queen is very dark, almost black all over.

Others I have seen are not so dark, certainly not like this one.

I'm curious if it indicates anything by way of her strain or anything else? Her daughters look quite regular coloured for around here.

Not really.
Honeybee workers are diploid (meaning they receive one set of 16 chromosomes from each parent). Drones are haploid (meaning they only receive one set of chromosomes from their mother).
If the drones were uniformly dark, it is possible that the queen was an Apis mellifera mellifera, but this is extremely unlikely. The fact that her female progeny (workers and any queens she produced) were like the local bees tells me that she was mated to local drones so any females she produced would be like them.

 

[Antipodes]

Thanks for the interesting replies.

B+ ...so this queen is black because of a range of natural variations in colour of
queens of mixed varieties? She is perhaps a mixture of the English Black, the Carniolian Bee and the Italian bee? She mated with drones of a mixed variety and is therefore producing workers that are all a combination of mixed varieties too?

I wonder if it is possible to reasonably accurately distinguish a dominant genetic variety by colour?

 

[B+.]

Thanks for the interesting replies.

B+ ...so this queen is black because of a range of natural variations in colour of
queens of mixed varieties? She is perhaps a mixture of the English Black, the Carniolian Bee and the Italian bee? She mated with drones of a mixed variety and is therefore producing workers that are all a combination of mixed varieties too?

I wonder if it is possible to reasonably accurately distinguish a dominant genetic variety by colour?

Morphometric tests were used by entomologists before dna testing was developed. Part of these tests looked at hair and tongue length, colour, wing vein indices, etc.

 

[Antipodes]

Thanks again. I've noticed that all of my worker bees in one colony are darker coloured than those in an adjacent colony that are distinctly yellower.

So like the queen, it means only that those two colonies are both the same mixed up variety of honey bee, just being different in colour?

 

[For want of a better word]

Thanks again. I've noticed that all of my worker bees in one colony are darker coloured than those in an adjacent colony that are distinctly yellower.

So like the queen, it means only that those two colonies are both the same mixed up variety of honey bee, just being different in colour?

DNA testing would be the only method to determine the level of introgression between Amm and Aml you seem to have.

In Cornwall we have a similar mix of bees due to a century of introgression with imported Italian ( and mongrell "hybrids" based on Aml) diluting the pure so called native race of Amm that are endemic to Cornwall and the UK.#

There are beekeepers in Tasmania who have been studying the bees on Tasmania.. all imported from Europe initially... and I believe they are linked with your Government in some areas of research.

# controversial if Amc have been imported to Tasmania?

Give my regards to Cousin Jack in Launceston !!

Chons da

 

[Antipodes]

Thanks Cheers,

Will do mate, but is it Lansen or Lornston?

It is many years since I've ventured to Falmouth to wet a line, it's a nice part of our coastline.

 

[For want of a better word]

Thanks Cheers,

Will do mate, but is it Lansen or Lornston?

It is many years since I've ventured to Falmouth to wet a line, it's a nice part of our coastline.

Lancen this side of the Tamar Lornseston if your in Taz!