Bees bodies are either black or cordovan.
That's not my understanding.
The chemical associated with bee body colour is generally thought (by Woyke and others) to be melanin: as the level of melanin increases, the colour of the integument changes from yellow, through shades of brown, to black.
Melanin is produced from tyrosine via a metabolic pathway which is thought to have six steps. These steps are controlled by three pairs of so-called 'polygenes', the level of melanin and it's associated range of colours being quantitative.
In addition to these polygenes, there is a completely separate 'bl' gene, which codes for black when homozygous (same alleles present on both strands of the DNA), and which 'over-rides' whatever colour the polygenes would have created. Thus, a bee will either be Black, or 'Coloured' - with one of the possible colours produced being Black.
There are indeed three known mutants produced from recessive genes: albino, cordovan and 'yellow face'.
LJ