Hi Joe!
I caught a wild swarm in May 1996.  My grandfather had bees here about 60 years ago and I'm 40 now and all my life these bees have been  swarming back and forth on our farm.  Grandpa has been dead now since 1982, but he always said that these were the bees that got away.  To my knowledge there is nobody else around here with bees, actually I'm pretty certain.  This August I caught another wild swarm in the same tree beside the house that the first swarm landed in.  I have raised all my queens from the first swarm queen, with the exception of the second swarm. I mark my queens and when I was checking them for the winter and taking out apistain strips, I saw that 3 of my 25 hives had superseded their queens and that these queens were Cordovan.  When I read about the genetics on this, I took, it that there had to be a gene present in both the queen and the drones to make the recessive gene surface.  Then I thought that, to have that many queens have this colouring I must have some inbreeding going on.  I do have some jet black bees and the drones are also black but they have very dark chocolate brown body hair, which at a glance appears black.  
 
Debbie
 
p.s. When I first got on this list I had questions as to what kind of bees I do have, because I have not seen any quite like them.  But being a new beekeeper I started to think that maybe I was making more of this than what need be. But now there is this colour and I guess it just puzzels me.
 
-----Original Message-----
From:   Joe Latshaw [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, October 22, 1997 11:52 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: Colour Cordovan
 
Dear Debbie,
 
    Yes, the Cordovan gene can be expressed in any honeybee, including the
Carniolan.  It appears as you described, a copper color.  The color can vary
through selection and some cordovan carniolans appear to be black, but if you
look closely under a microscope you will see they are cordovan.  I doubt you
have a case of isolated breeding.  The cordovan gene has been showing up more
and more lately.  If you purchased your carniolans some where down the line
it most likely came with them, although it may not have been expressed at the
time.  I'm curious as to where you purchased your queens, if you did buy
them.
 
Sincerely,
Joe Latshaw