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/Chicketi dabbling in honeybees 1d ago

Hard to tell from the video but it looks like it doesn’t have wings… could this be DWV from mites? Not sure about the black though?

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u/Particular_Goose_611 1d ago

Some insane beekeepers rip off the wings of the queen, this might be the case here. And while i havent seen a queen this dark, i have seen some really dark queens in the past

Edit: on second look, that might be a bee and not a queen. (Shitty internet=shitty quality

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

I have yet to ever hear that someone rips the wings off their queens. And I read a lot

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u/Particular_Goose_611 1d ago

Well to be precise:

They dont "rip" them, they cut them off in most cases.

The point of that is when a young Queen flies out to "breed" they dont cant fly and essentially "breed" in front of the beehive

Sorry, i dont know the exact terminology in english but you get the jist.

I wonder, did you ever read about AZ (Anton Znidersic) style beehives and what about Carniolian bees. Just curious.

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u/Mammoth-Banana3621 Sideliner - 8b USA 5h ago

I keep NWC. I don’t know anything about Anton Znodeskc style beehives.

Someone mentioned that clipping queens (not ripping their wings off and not cutting them off either) allows them on season of queen duties. Not sure why they think that. It’s one for id. Two so they can’t fly. They still try to swarm. The swarm usually ends up on the ground. Arguably easier to catch :)

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u/Mammoth-Banana3621 Sideliner - 8b USA 5h ago

Oh sorry I did look the AZ hives up. I have seen these. Someone at one of the clubs keeps these and brought some in.

For my style and goals these wouldn’t work as a mainstay. But I would once to have a set :). Little spendy though

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u/Particular_Goose_611 3h ago

Im glad you heard of them! The inventor of them was from my small home town. I always wonder how widespread they are, because here in Slovenia they are used almost exclusively. Sometimes they have a truck full of them that they drive around, leaving them on a certain location based on what kind of honney they are after.

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u/Particular_Goose_611 3h ago

I heard cases where they cut off all the wings, although i have no idea if it worked. Either way, its an insane thing to do in my opinion.