Bill, It is possible that a feral colony took over or a supercedure
occured but due to the season and the lack of ferals now this appears less
likely.  One possibility is that in the queens initial mating flight she
mated with drones that manifest dark color. Sperm that had been stored
inside the queen in her spematheca may now be from dark drones while
previously sperm came from "yellow" Italian drones. What kind of bee stock
are you using now? If you have some Italians and some Carniolans, this
could be a clue.  Do your neighboring beekeepers use any different color
stock?
 
Grins, John
 
John A. Skinner           218 Ellington Hall
Extension Apiculturist    University of Tennessee
[log in to unmask]          Knoxville, TN  37901   (423)974-7138
 
 
On Sun, 2 Mar 1997, MR WILLIAM L HUGHES JR. wrote:
 
> Yesterday it stopped raining long enough for me to start treating
> some of my colonies.  I noticed that two of the colonies have all
> black bees.  Just last month they were Italian.  Could a feral colony
> taken them over or have they superceded the old queen and the new one
> mated with "wild" bees.  The brood pattern is excellent and these two
> colonies are full of bees.
>
> Bill Hughes
> Bent Holly Honey Farms
> Brighton, Tennessee, U.S.A.
>