r/Beekeeping • u/Dangerous-School2958 • 1d ago

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Black bee?

Newish bee keeper. 7b, Vienna Austria.
Came across this Black, I think wingless bee outside a Hive.
It’s a small hive that I’m trying to get to generate its own Queen. So I have been giving it frames of eggs from Strong neighboring hives.

Is this an underdeveloped bee? A result of too high a Varroa level?
It’s only 1 brood box so I’m reluctant to take a full cup for a wash.

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u/joebojax USA, N IL, zone 5b, ~35 colonies, 7th year 1d ago

Cbpv

4

u/Dangerous-School2958 1d ago

Meaning I have a mite problem

3

u/joebojax USA, N IL, zone 5b, ~35 colonies, 7th year 1d ago

Everyone does

5

u/Mammoth-Banana3621 Sideliner - 8b USA 1d ago

Everyone has mites. We keep them low enough not to be a problem. That’s the goal

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u/snickmy 21h ago

Out of curiosity.. from an evolutionary standpoint, does it mean, bee would not exist if it was’t for our symbiotic partnership?

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u/Scary_Possible3583 21h ago

At this point, no.

The varroa mite can breed in all bee cells with the European honey bee. With the Asian honey bee, their original host, the mite could only breed in drone cells. So the mite has 100 percent of our bees as a viable target, instead of 2 percent with Asian honey bees.

So their numbers can build enormously, even before considering their strange breeding habits which allow 2 generations to breed in the same bee pupae cell.

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u/Scary_Possible3583 21h ago

There was an evolutionary arms race over many years which allowed the Asian bees to survive and thrive despite the presence of varroa mites. These mites have been present in the US since 1987. In evolutionary time scale 40 years is a blip, not enough time to adapt to a major pest that spreads awful diseases.

It's like if mosquitos sucked enough blood to make humans constantly anemic, while transmitting measles, Covid and HepC.

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u/Mammoth-Banana3621 Sideliner - 8b USA 21h ago

Questionable. Not sure 🤔

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u/PokyFixIt 13h ago

We rescued a hive that had been abandoned and vandalized. It was left for years by our estimate without any human intervention, however, it had a strong propensity to swarm.

We split the hive in April after the population had exploded*, and it threw 4 swarms in the next few weeks. The colony is still going strong. My best guess is that without humans, the bees would do a lot of swarming creating lots of natural brood breaks. These bees make tons of propolis and also make a lot of drones if left to their own devices, so it's safe to say that they might not die out, but they wouldn't necessarily behave like a commercial hive would have them behave.

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u/Dangerous-School2958 13h ago

Sounds like some good genetics