Tigers

[max2]

I have no idea if Tiger Queens are unique to SE Qld - here in Australia?

This year I had to breed all my own queens and I have found 3 Tigers so far.

They are quite pretty - dark with 3 near black stripes on their back.

The best hive i probably ever had had a Tiger. I had some duds too.

Anybody else know of Tigers of the bee kind?

[Ben Framed]

I have had several tiger stripe queens Max. If not marked they are sometimes harder to spot.

Phillip

[max2]

They are difficult to spot.
I had seen eggs but could not find a queen ...and then...surprise!

[Michael Bush]

I get what I call tiger striped queens, but then sometimes I get worker style stripes on a queen.  They are really hard to spot.  I have no issues with light brown, black and tiger striped queens.  But when they look like a big worker they are very hard to see.

[The15thMember]

I've never had a queen that was striped as much as a worker, but I've had dark queens, and they often have some striping on their abdomens. 

[TheHoneyPump]

When raising our own queens, a side effect is it promotes the expression of the genetic diversity of the apiary and of the feral bees in the area surrounding your beeyard. My experience has been that The best and most robust hives in terms of health and productivity are the ones when you pull up a frame and see three or more different bee colour patterns walking around - including diversity in the queen colours.

This is why it is often said that the best queens are not the ones bought but the ones raised yourself. It is not because you did a better job raising them. Don't be arrogant and kid yourself. Professional queen breeders know exactly what they are doing and produce very high quality stock. Your own queens may come out better because the diversity of genetic traits that are allowed to come through results in more robust colonies. Different bees are good at different things. Mix them together and you have a colony of step-sister bees that is good at everything. You will also find out that your own queens are more stable and longer lived because they have not gone through the strains of rapid caging and climate fluctuations from transport.

There are however, equally possible negative side effects of raising own queens. That desireed gene diversity also means potential dilution of the good genes you want. So;  There will be duds. There will be meanies. There will be loafers. There will be the feeble. Watch for those and be prepared to cull them promptly and without remorse. When you start raising your own, you have to become committed to promote only the excellence in your apiary and unapologetically dispatch the mediocre. Base cull decisions on desired behaviour and high performance - ignoring colour of the queens and bees. Follow those basis and it will not be long that your boxes are full of your own premium select super-bees that you will have a hard time keeping up with.

Yes, The tigers can be harder to find on a frame covered of like coloured bees. But she sure is pretty when you see her.  Just don't blink or look away - as they have top tier cloaking capabilities that turn on and off instantly!

[Michael Bush]

>It is not because you did a better job raising them.  They are better because of the local diversity and the queens do not go through the strains of caging and transport etc.

They are also better if they don't get interrupted when they first start to lay (which almost all commercial queens are) and they are better if they get fed better and mated batter.  But certainly a wide gene pool and diversity of drones mated with are also contributors.

[max2]

" gene pool"
This will be an isue in the next few years.
Here in Qld we have been buying most of our queens from the state affected by Varroa ( NSW)

We need to get our act together and do more local selections.

I'm in touch with a good number of beekeepers - some big ( for us here) and I have been promised some queen cells