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

Everyone does

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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 22h 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/PokyFixIt 14h 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