This spring I placed a small "fountain" (with no pump) near my bee yard with
the intention of providing a close-by source of water during the dry times
of the year when the bees might otherwise have to travel much farther to
find any.  Although everything is pretty soggy, they are using it already
and the other day I had a wonderful opportunity to get down on my stomach
just inches away from it and watch the bees very closely, as well as taking
a few pictures.

One thing that I was able to capture on film (well, on a memory card
actually) was something I *thought* I had noticed last year already.

Most of my bees have two pale yellow bands at the rear of their abdomens and
three orange ones closer to the thorax, with black bands between the
coloured ones.  The orange colour is very obvious on most of the bees.

Some tiny percentage of the bees however seem to lack the orange colour.
Pictures of both can be seen here:

http://www.blessedbee.ca/honeybees/ourbees/having_a_drink.htm

I am at a loss to explain this.  Do bees darken as they age?  Could it be
because the dark ones are over-wintered bees?  (I don't think so - I was
noticing this already last summer.)

I have only two colonies at present so if the difference were colony based I
should be seeing as many black as orange bees.  To the best of my knowledge
there are no other beekeepers nearby, and if there were I can't imagine that
their bees would fly past thousands of puddles to drink at my bee yard.

(In light of recent message I should mention that I have observed no robbing
behaviour)

Any thoughts?
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The very act of seeking sets something in motion to meet us;
something in the universe, or in the unconscious responds as if
to an invitation.  - Jean Shinoda Bolen

http://WWW.BlessedBee.ca