Hello Bee Friends.

Dave and I did a bee removal the other day.  (Yes, last year we suggested
that the people wait until March or April.  They waited.  Then waited too
long.  Finally got their equipment, put it together, and were ready.  They
said they would faithfully feed to get the bees built up for winter.  Oh
well)

The owners stated that the bees had been in the wall of the house for about
4 years.  No one had been living there and they were just now getting it
fixed up to move into.  The hive gave off swarms every spring.

The bees actually were in the ceiling of the basement deck level.  This made
it easy to recover because we just removed the plywood ceiling and some
plastic and insulation and there they were.  I doubt that they had been
there much longer than a year or so, About 10 combs, 8" long by about 3 feet
wide.

The bees looked different than any of ours (Buckfast, Italian, Russian,
Carniolian and many wild swarms).  The worker bees had a noticeable and
distinct coloration.  Their bodies were the usual brown with orangish brown
stripes from hair.  Now, these bees, on the back of the thorax, the spot
that is only seen when they bend over and separate their abdomen, was a
bright and distinct yellow.  No stripes, just yellow.  The color yellow that
you see on bumble bees.

The other thing.  All of our hives have already thrown out the drones (well,
except the laying worker hive that only had drones).  This wild hive had
plenty of drones, not overly so, just enough.  Well, these drones had wings
on them that were extremely long.  A good 1/4" to 3/8"  longer than the
wings on drones we are used to seeing.

And another.  We removed the brood combs and tied them into empty frames.
We were able to spot the queen and just carried that comb over to the hive
box and laid it upright against the side.  She was on the comb when we
closed the hive.  We finished removing the rest of the combs, they only had
a bit of honey, no more brood so we didn't tie these in.

Two days later the lady called and said there was a swarm hanging in the
tree above the hive.  We figured we needed to move the hive to the more than
3 miles because the less than 10 feet didn't work.  So we had to do a bee
presentation and kept our fingers crossed that the swarm wouldn't leave.
Off we go the next day, she said they were still there.  Well, sure enough
there was a cluster the size of a soccer ball.  With a queen in the middle.
We put them in our cardboard carry case.  Then we looked in the hive.  Sure
enough, there was a queen in the hive.

Two queens, odd coloration, drone wings longer than usual.

Any ideas?

Judy in Kentucky