Why are Honey Bees Different Colors?

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Among the 20,000 different species of bees, only a small percentage are honey bees. These honey bee races share many anatomical characteristics. They have wings, pollen baskets and stingers – things they need to get their jobs done. Interestingly, there is some color variation in honey bees. This leads us to ponder why honey bees are different colors.

Can you form a mental image of a honey bee in your mind? If so, I imagine you are thinking of a small insect with yellow – brown bodies with black stripes on their back. Most people understand what a honey bee looks like – there are popular insects.

Honey Bee Color Variations

Of course, most descriptions include the colors yellow and black. This is because yellow and black are two of the “warning colors” in nature. It is nature’s way of warning someone to stay away and avoid the stinger.

But, of course, not every bee has the exact same shades of color or markings. Sometimes, a beekeeper finds a surprise when visiting the hive.

Let’s image you installed a nice family of darker bees in your new hive a few months ago. Today, you open the hive to find thousands of light golden striped workers. These obviously look like honey bees but something is different.

What has happened to your colony? Is something wrong with them. Assuming, this is not a new swarm that has moved into your box – you are seeing bee genetics at work.

While some bees are darker than others, finding a significate variation of bee colors in your hive is actually a good sign.

Genetic Diversity in a Bee Colony

Colonies with a good mix of worker bee colors and patterns tend to be some of the healthiest colonies to have. This indicates a wealth of different genetic material used to produce the workers.

A queen honey bee only mates over a few days early in her life. During these mating flights, she mates with around 12-20 drones or males.

Upon returning to the hive, the queen will lay fertile eggs to produce workers. Workers get half their genetic material from the queen and half from a drone. 

These drone fathers come from many different colonies within the flight region. Some of them will be lighter in color than others and they carry the genetics from their mothers.

Naturally, this results in a colony of worker bees that may be different colors. All colony members have the same mother but there are many different fathers that contributed to the genetic pool.

Breeding Races of Honey Bees

There are times when we want a closely related hive. All the members of the colony are the same color and possess common traits. 

This is often the case with bee breeders that are working to develop colonies with certain characteristics such as varroa resistance etc.

Can you identify a type of honey bee by color alone? No, not normally but the color of the bees can give some hints about their ancestry.

Italian honey bees tend to be lighter in color with brighter yellow markings. Workers fathered by light colored Italian drones would be brighter in the hive.

Carniolans are sought after by many backyard beekeepers.  They have the characteristics of being winter hardy, quick spring build up and having some tracheal mite resistance.

They are also a darker bee than many of the those we are familiar with. Carnis are often mixed with other blood lines to strive for varroa resistance.

Russian honey bees also tend to be darker. If you see many darker bees, they are likely related to Russians or Carniolans.

Cordovan Color

Cordovans are not a separate race or family of bees. It is merely a term used to describe a color variation. Cordovan Italians are beautiful and prized by beekeepers for the easy to find queens.

Cordovan bees are those in which the parts of a bee that are usually black become reddish brown. The queen often has a yellow abdomen that is a solid color all the way to the tip.  

Often used by bee breeders, cordovan is a useful genetic marker that is controlled by a recessive gene. They are not known to have any special desirable characteristics beyond their color markings.

Do Bees Change Color?

Honey bees do not change color during their lifetime. However, the appearance of a bee can change-giving the impression of a change in body color.

 After weeks of hard work outside the hive, workers can take on a ragged look. Some of the fine hairs on their thorax are lost giving them a bald spot appearance.They lose some of their fuzziness.

Those involved in robbing are often darker because they have lost their hair during fighting. They also get wax and honey all over them during the fighting frenzy

However, shiny black greasy bees can be a sign of disease. Some of the viruses that plague bee colonies can cause a dark greasy appearance.