Worldwide Beekeeping

Beekeeping => Beekeeping 101 => Topic started by: Some Day on March 21, 2018, 12:32:01 pm

Title: What kind of bees are these?
Post by: Some Day on March 21, 2018, 12:32:01 pm

Hopefully I have added a couple of photos of bees to this post.  Are there two types of bees in these photos feeding together?  If so what kind are they?  It seems to me that some of them have different banding color schemes on their abdomens.
(https://thumb.ibb.co/nnM7kH/DSC_0008.jpg) (https://ibb.co/nnM7kH)

(https://thumb.ibb.co/mUvdsx/DSC_0009.jpg) (https://ibb.co/mUvdsx)

Title: Re: What kind of bees are these?
Post by: Perry on March 21, 2018, 03:15:33 pm

Don't forget that even though these bees may all be sisters, they may well have different fathers. Queens mate with up to 20 different drones and when they fertilize each egg (if she so chooses) she may use sperm from different drones.

Title: Re: What kind of bees are these?
Post by: neillsayers on March 21, 2018, 04:44:24 pm

Some Day,

They look like Carnie/italian mongrels to me, like most bees in the U.S. I guess. :)

Title: Re: What kind of bees are these?
Post by: riverbee on March 21, 2018, 11:26:52 pm

great photos some day!
as perry said, these are bees with different fathers. banding schemes are sort of incredible when we see sister bees with different banding and/or lighter or darker colors; it is just the drones/drone genetics queens have mated with.