Tim Morris writes: "This is a hive that has only been allowed to requeen
itself, and yet this hive still has the mix of Italians and Carniolians after
4 or 5 years.  He is sure its a newer queen at this point..."

The reason that both Italian and Carniolan bees are mixed in this hive is
most likely due to the fact that when the new queen went on her mating flight,
she mated with both Carniolan and Italian drones.  The sperm load she is
carrying consists of both phenotypes and is expressed in the offspring's
appearance.  I once had a hive that was originally Italians and the bees
raised a new queen.  After she came back and started laying, then about half my
bees were dark and half were light.  In this case, apparently the new queen
mated with what we call over here the "German" dark bee drones as well as
Italian drones.  I suppose it is possible that the queen in a hive could be
pure Carniolan and mate only with Italian drones and all the offspring could
possibly phenotypically be Italian looking.  I think there is nothing to be
concerned about in having the mix.  As a matter of fact, the greater the
different number of daughter cohorts in a hive probably the better, because
the different bees will have different traits and more of the various tasks in
the hive will be accomplished more efficiently.  As long as one of those traits
is not extreme aggressiveness, I'd say chances are the unusual hive is a very
good one due to its heterogeneity.

Layne Westover
College Station, Texas, U.S.A.