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Date: | Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:40:31 GMT |
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>>Yes she will mate with 30+ drones and that will give you a real
hotch potch of variability.
A variability in workers AND virgin queens that you may raise. If
you ever allow your colony to make a bunch of queen cells which you
will separate to produce many queens, you will see the color
variation. I've seen virgin queens that were bright, stripe-less
(likely from a Cordovan drone) and virgin queens that were very dark
(likely from a Carniolan drone) - both from the same queen-mother.
Color is a marker but it may not be a positive indicator of desired
characteristics. You may get very similar traits from different-
colored queens.
You may be looking for uniformity in your bees but the variability
helps the colonies adapt to variations in the environment and
conditions. In nature, the colonies whose main patrilines have the
most suitable characteristics for a particular environment are the
fittest survivors that will cast the most successful swarms whose
genetics will dominate in time.
Waldemar
Long Island, NY
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