>>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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