philinacoma writes:
What assumptions can be made as to the genetics and type of bee based upon the colour of the queen?
tecumseh:
since half the genetic material is derived from the multiple drones that mated with a given queen (of what ever color) many of the productivity, workability questions and behavioral question will be TOTALLY unknown. You could have reasonable assumed when you first began each of these take outs that the color of the drone in each hive directly reflects the color of the queen in the wall (or tree or whatever).
You might assume the golden colored queen is an Italian although the darker bee MIGHT also conform to this same assumption since this 'race' of bee varies from Cordovan (double recessive genes for the black coloration in your typical yellow Italian so the black in your typical Italian is yellow or red) to black.