I have nine colonies in top bar hives and five five-bar nucs.  I raised
the queens in the nucs by grafting.  The queens seem to be doing well in
the nucs, but one of the nucs seems to be developing more and more very
dark bees.  All of my colonies have been Italian though I did have one
colony of black bees establish itself in a vacant hive three years ago.
That colony of black bees died out during the following winter...probably
due to mites.
 
I don't know enough about honeybee genetics to know how color is
inherited, though I would bet that it's multiple alleles, quantitatively
inherited.  Any ideas on what I might be seeing?? Is it likely that the
queen in the dark nuc mated with one or more dark drones?  There well may
be some feral colonies of black bees in adjacent forests, though feral
colonies seem to be few and far between in Georgia, USA now compared to
years before Varroa.
 
Any comments would be appreciated.
 
Cordially yours,
 
Jim
 
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|  James D.Satterfield   |  [log in to unmask]     or    |
|  P.O. Box 2243         |  [log in to unmask]                        |
|  Decatur, GA 30031 USA |  Telephone 404 378-8917  |
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