Honey Bee Colors
Among the large number of bees found worldwide, only a small percentage are honey bees. Honey bees are divided into different races that share many similar anatomical characteristics. However, you may notice that there is some color variation in honey bees. Many new beekeepers are surprised to find honey bees of different colors in the same hive! In this article, you will learn how and why this happens.
For most folks, the mental image of a honey bee conjures up thoughts of – a small insect with yellow – brown bodies and black stripes. Almost everyone understands what a honey bee looks like – they are popular insects. But, beekeepers get a chance to be up close and personal with bees – we can see minor differences.
Common Color Patterns in Honey Bees
Of course, most bee descriptions include the colors yellow and black. These are two of the “warning colors” in nature.
It is nature’s way of warning someone (something) to stay away and avoid the stinger. Still not every bees is exactly the same color and pattern.
It is often the new beekeeper that finds a surprise when visiting the hive. You may feel that someone that switched your bees!
Let’s imagine 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.
Everything looks great and everyone is happy – but this doesn’t seem to be the bees you installed. What has happened to your colony?
Assuming, this is not a new honey bee swarm that has moved into your box – you are seeing bee genetics at work.
Genetic Diversity in a Bee Colony
Genetics play a huge role in many aspects of colony life – honey bee color is one characteristic in play.
To a large degree, colors are the result of how honey bees reproduce – this includes mating habits.
A queen honey bee is the mother of all bees in the colony. She only mates for a few days early in her life.
But, during these mating flights, she mates with around 12-20 drones or male bees.
Using sperm stored in her abdomen, the queen will lay thousands of fertile honey bee eggs over the next few years to produce worker bees.
Workers get half their genetic material from the queen and half from a drone. But, which drone? All the semen is mixed together in the queen’s spermatheca.
These drone fathers come from many different colonies within the flight region. Some of them will be lighter or darker in color than others. They carry the genetics from their mothers (they develop from unfertilized eggs.)
Naturally, this results in a colony of 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.
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 with less chances of inbreeding.
Breeding Races of Honey Bees
There are times when a beekeeper may want a closely related hive. This is often the case with bee breeders that are working to develop colonies with certain characteristics such as varroa resistance etc.
All the members of the colony are the same color and possess common desirable traits. If breeding is successful.
Of course to maintain this purity, queens must be artificially inseminated and not allowed to open breed.
Light & Dark Honey Bee Colors
Can you tell exactly what type of honey bee (or race) by color alone? No, not normally but the color of the bees can give some hints about their ancestry.
- Italian bees tend to be lighter in color with brighter yellow markings. Workers fathered by light colored Italian drones would be brighter in the hive.
- Carniolan honey bees are a darker bee sought after by many backyard beekeepers. They have the characteristics of being winter hardy, quick spring build up and having some resistance to tracheal mites that infect bees.
- 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 Individual Bees Change Color Over Time?
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 the bee’s body parts (thorax) are lost giving them a bald spot appearance. They are not as fuzzy.
If hives in your apiary have been involved in honey bee robbing activities – it is common to see darker bee bodies.
Sometimes they lose all 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.
Temporary Factors Affecting Bee Colors
Beyond the results of genetic inheritance, there are few other situations that can cause your honey bees to be a slightly different color.
- age and wear (old bees look rather frumpy and less fuzzy)
- environmental effects – in hot climate sun exposure may can a worn look on older bees
- pollen-foraging – plant pollen may add temporary colors to foraging worker bees
Seeing a noticeable color change in your honey bee colony can be rather perplexing. However, in most cases, is is not due to individual bees changing color.
Workers being born with different fathers will add a bit of variation in your bee colors. Enjoy the genetic diversity of your honey bee colony. Hopefully they will be strong and productive.
FAQs
Some beekeepers believe certain races or color variations (like darker Carniolans or lighter Italians) tend to have different temperaments, but color alone isn’t a reliable indicator of behavior.
Not necessarily. A queen can look quite different from her workers, especially if the drones she mated with were from a different stock. It’s possible for a golden queen to produce both light and dark workers.
Yes. Hybrid colonies often display a broader range of color patterns due to mixed genetic contributions, making them appear less uniform than colonies from a controlled breeding line.
Final Thoughts
Seeing honey bees of different colors in your hive is completely normal—and often a good sign. These variations reflect the rich genetic diversity that results from a queen mating with multiple drones, each contributing unique traits to her offspring. While color alone won’t tell you everything about a bee’s ancestry or behavior, it can offer clues about the races present in your colony.
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