This is I swarm I collected with a friend on 19-5-10.
The bees were very black and looked good but are obviously heavily hybridized.
It was one of the biggest swarms I have ever seen.
TT put it in a double brood box and on checking yesterday it had over 12 sides of brood.
Not bad for 11 days work.
He said the temperament was bad.
Just goes to show that blackness is not a reliable indicator.
Just got another plot back from the colony I have designated for drone raising.
I have been putting frames of drone brood from this one in all my other colonies.
it is also my strongest colony so I am very pleased with the results 85% meeting AMM criteria.
3 plots from one of my colonies: the left and the right from workers, the one in the middle from the queen, which seems way out, but can't be compared directly with the workers.
I have collected all the queens' wings that I clipped this year (not easy when there is even just a gentle breeze), but not checked them yet. Has anybody else got morphometry results for queens?
Your plot looks good but the actual bees look a bit what I would call yellow. What about the brood pattern. Is there nice white cappings and a pollen / honey pattern similar for black bees. You could try and measure hair length. I have heard that the thickness of the wire used in wax foundation is about the correct thickness for measuring although I have never tried to measure. I would also be tempted to take another sample and see if you get the same result as your original plot. I would do the drawwing measurement step by step to make certain it is accurate. Can you trace the history of your colonies i.e where did they originally come from etc.
I feel the same as you, that they are rather light coloured. They are all very much the same, except for the one yellow bee in the photo that could have come over from the neighbouring hive which still has some hybrid bees in it, it's due to be requeened shortly.
The morphometry was done by Roger, who is quite experienced at it. If anybody else wants to have a go I can send the wings.
I will take a picture of their cappings & brood pattern when I go through them next time, I might also have a look at the hair length.
The history of this colony is as follows: the were last year's swarm in an area where the only beekeeper has got bees that go back a long time in Orkney. A previous owner of this strain is still alive and I am planning to meet her this summer to find out more about their history.
They are extremely hardy, as they have survived despite having been owned by a let-alone beekeeper for the last decade.
They are nice enough to work with, although there is still some room for improvement.
Everything seems to be right, except for their hair colour.
I wonder if they would be candidates for a genetic test, to see how native they are.
Doris
Last edited by Stromnessbees; 08-06-2010 at 06:59 PM.
If you want you could send me a sample for morphometry for a second opinion. I could also keep the sample and extract the DNA for you but am not able to do the DNA analysis. You would be best to contact BIBBA for their contacts. I am currently working on samples from Andrew Abraham and also working on improving the quality and yield of extracted DNA. I remember someone in BIBBA commenting on that you can't just go on body colour but to take all other factors into consideration.
Here is an interesting result of wing morphometry from an isolated area. Don't know much about the bees yet but intend to follow this up. Picture of virgin queen from the hive.
Alvearium
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