>>The managed bees were quite yellow <...> gentle, and calm on the combs.  The ferals were darker, banded, bees which were much more defensive and active on the combs.

I am surprised at the gentleness of the colonies that I remove from structures.  I often don't use smoke [and the bee vac takes care of any bees coming out to defend].  Almost without an exception.  On the other hand, my super strong *managed* [I breed from the ferals best performing under my care] colonies can be quite defensive when disturbed after the major honey flow.

I have a few of thoughts on this:

1. My hives are close to each other.  The different queens scents make the bees edgy.  Ferals enjoy fairly good isolation.

2. Most drones in my breeding area must be yellow since most of my raised queens are yellow.  [Black queens mated in my area tend to have yellowish daughters.]  This *hybrid* result not only has vigor but also possibly higher defensiveness in adverse conditions.

3. My vertical, unlimited broodnest hives result in much higher populations that any ferals I have seen.  Larger colonies can *afford* to be more defensive as losing a few guards is negligible.

Waldemar



 

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