>
>The Weavers (Texas) sold for years in the sixties & seventies queens which
>resembled the above but not exactly unless the queens were large. The Weaver
>queens were very large and in certain light the queens &  legs 
>appeared a red color.
>Stories were circulated in commercial circles these queens dated back to a
>Ligurian import in the late 1800's.


Yes, the red queens are very large - they really showed out in 
captured swarms.  However the production of these lines did not match 
the lines from areas closer to the Bee Farm operations and they have 
been phased out.


>or small dark queens with
>>aggressive hives.
>
>I would be interested in a DNA test of these bees. Has one been done Betty?


The small dark bees were certainly included in the DNA testing done 
10 or so years back as they were collected from my original 
hives.  Beekeeping in this area was dominated by one beekeeper from 
the 1930s to mid 1980s and hives restricted to a peninsula with very 
barren bee forage separation from the rest of the Island.  I have now 
been migrating hives into this area for 20 years and note a distinct 
improvement around apiary sites but there is still a definite 
geographic zone where I expect to have to routinely cull small dark queens.

Betty McAdam




HOG BAY APIARY
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
J.H. & E. McAdam<[log in to unmask]>
http://www.users.on.net/~hogbay/index.htm

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