I believe bee size and coloration has much to do with winter tempuratures
and seasonal length. If you go to higher latitudes, you have longer colder
winters. If you increase altitude, the same is also true. Where you find
similar situations, you find similar bees.


I know there are races of bees which seem to break this rule, but different
races aren't part of the equation. This is what is misunderstood. Its not
that black bees come from the north and yellow from the south, however that
is true, but not quite because of race. It is more of an adaption and of
course genetic dominance of an adaption.

If you find Italian bees in florida, they will be brighter than Italian bees
in iowa. I know I have kept Italians in both areas. I had 48 colonies in
florida, and I watched them over several years become more uniform and match
each other in appearance as the queens got replaced naturally over the years
by supercedure, swarming or divides and splits. No queens were introduced
after the initial package purchase. The bees became more uniform over time,
and they became very distinct so that I could recognize them as mine or not.
Very distinct stripping, however they were light in color, like white pine
in color, and just a shade darker.

Here in iowa I purchased 500 colonies from two sources, one source of which
I wanted the genetics from, and the other for the cannon fodder to have bees
in woodenware. I worked all last year to requeen from my desired stock and
raised queens aggressively. This spring, I have been splitting and dividing
my strong stocks as soon as they were ready. The bees I have now don't look
like the bees I bought from a mishmash of sources, the one source I know
gets queens from California, while the local source breeds his own bees.
After two years of aggressive queen rearing to knock down the California
genes and push up the local genes, my bees are uniform...They are Italians,
and you would call them Italians if you just looked at them, but they are
not the same color. They are significantly darker, like the color of stained
leather or stained wood.

Now you can say...Ok sure, one pocket of bees in florida vs. one pocket of
bees in iowa. And you would be right, except I am one of many people who
share this or similar experience. You can read eva crane all you want, or
you can travel and check the bees out yourself...So long as the bees have
not be recently introduced and have had a few years to multiple and
supercede a few times, you go north and find darker bees, and go south and
find yellower bees...consistently.

Its not about where the races come from, it's the difference between bees of
the SAME race in different latitudes and altitudes that demonstrate the
difference. Just because monticola is black, doesn't not invalidate
anything. You are talking about a distinct race here and there, what dee and
I are talking about are trends of a species.

Gas prices are going, just because one refinery sells cheaper than the
others doesn't change the fact that gas IS getting more expensive. (no its
not really true, just an analogy)


Scot McPherson
McPherson Family Farms
Davenport, IA

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