# Need help identifying a bee



## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

It's one of urs probably, just lost most of it's hair somewhere so it looks different.


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## Ben Franklin (May 3, 2011)

Unless your queen was artificial inseminated with pure Italian drones sperm I would side you have a mixed bred hive.


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## Stan1951 (Apr 9, 2013)

As far as I can tell they're not in the hive. I meant to say that these different looking bees have shown up on the bee feeder. We're in the midst of summer and there's not much flowering going on so I just started feeding my bees sugar water until the fall flowering starts. So far they're all getting along ok even though they're competing for their food.


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## scorpionmain (Apr 17, 2012)

Looks like a wet bee to me.
Probably, got wet when you where refilling feeder.


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## Blessed Farms (Jun 12, 2012)

I have had some just like that inside one of my hives. It was a hive that swarmed and I first saw two of these inside after the swarm cells were being torn down. I first thought that it was virgin queens. They are a tad smaller than my workers. Some of the workers pay them no attention and others are just aggressive enough to run them off, but not really attack them. If i can get a pic uploaded...


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## NewJoe (Jul 1, 2012)

I would say probably just old worn out workers from your hive...maybe not different bees at all.


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## Stan1951 (Apr 9, 2013)

I sent a picture to the North Carolina State University Apiculturist and he thinks that it's Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (CBPV).


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## JStinson (Mar 30, 2013)

Had to look that one up:

http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Chronic_Bee_Paralysis_Virus

"Symptoms of CBPV include severe trembling of the wings and body, crawling on the ground, hairlessness, darker or shinier appearance, death, etc."

I have some bees that look just like that. I just thought they were some different strain. I think they look pretty cool.


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## Stan1951 (Apr 9, 2013)

I haven't seen the trembling or crawling on the ground. I have seen the hairlessness, darker appearance, and some dead ones around the feeder. They're no more aggressive than the other bees but they just make me more cautious because they look like wasps.


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## berkshire bee (Jan 28, 2007)

Is there just one set of wings? never mind, I see two.


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## HONEYDEW (Mar 9, 2007)

definitely CBPV I lost 2 hives to it this year.. nothing you can do as far as my internet research found


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## Murdock (Jun 16, 2013)

Do you have any idea what causes the virus or how it is contracted? I have some darker bees too and some crawling on the ground which I thought might be v. mite problems. I am currently treating with APIGUARD to see if that makes a difference.


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## HONEYDEW (Mar 9, 2007)

Murdock said:


> Do you have any idea what causes the virus or how it is contracted? I have some darker bees too and some crawling on the ground which I thought might be v. mite problems. I am currently treating with APIGUARD to see if that makes a difference.


Apiguard will do nothing for it, there are some write ups on the internet about it mostly from the UK. My hive had hundreds of shivering bees a day in front of it and walking around lost on the ground until the hive collapsed from it , some of the reads say re-queening may help. good luck with it


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## Z-B (Jun 4, 2013)

Had a hive with the hairless bees and shaking about two months ago. Mite check met treatment threshold. treated for V. mite (Apiguard) and now they are doing good. V mite knocked them down and then the palsy/hairless problems surfaced. Looks like the Mite was the root cause for our hive. sometimes you have to treat for the cause not the effect.


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