# Are there such things as albino honeybees?



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Could be a white pollen. Could just be a young fuzzy bee.


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## Aspera (Aug 1, 2005)

Caucasians are sometimes described as a gray bee.


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## iddee (Jun 21, 2005)

Yes, I have seen them. I think it is called melanistic, but don't quote me on that.


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## naturebee (Dec 25, 2004)

I doubt its albino. Genetics can cause very light or wacky color makings in honeybees.

The Cordovan trait for example can produce very pale yellow workers. 

http://members.aol.com/queenb95/cdtour.gif

Another example is the oddball bees, strange color markings, eye color and blind bees:

http://members.aol.com/glennapiar/oddball.html#anchor2831823

I did however manage to catch this rare giant albino honeybee on film:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/naturebee/detail?.dir=d450&.dnm=2411.jpg&.src=ph


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## Jake (Sep 24, 2016)

Dr. C.C. Miller, In his 1917 book a thousand answer to beekeeping questions, talks about albino colonies, but says he has not heard of one for many years. I


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Newly emerged bees can appear very light until their exoskeleton scleratizes/hardens. There is a mutation that occurs and I have only seen it once in all my years. It is described as sort of an "albinism", however, it is more a lack of pigmentation. In the colony I saw, it was expressed in the drones. Drones are haploid and so recessive mutations are more visible. It seemed pretty detrimental in this case as the drones never scleratized and were discarded by the workers. I think at the time the literature described them as essentially sterile.


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## kebabman (Jun 26, 2016)

Jake said:


> Dr. C.C. Miller, In his 1917 book a thousand answer to beekeeping questions, talks about albino colonies, but says he has not heard of one for many years. I


I think Dr C.C. Miller was still alive when this thread was originally posted.


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## DeezBeez (Mar 14, 2013)

I have a few hives with predominant orange. Very Irish. Had the hardest time extracting honey from these particular hives. They would not shake or be brushed off the frames easily. And had quite a temper I might add.


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## clyderoad (Jun 10, 2012)

DeezBeez said:


> I have a few hives with predominant orange. Very Irish.


what does this mean?


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

iddee said:


> Yes, I have seen them. I think it is called melanistic, but don't quote me on that.


melanistic would be a black bee.


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## Alison44 (Jun 26, 2021)

Was it like this? Found this in our garden in Cheshire today.... couldn't find anything like it on Google images...


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## elmer_fud (Apr 21, 2018)

I think that is a variety of bumble bees or solitary bees. That does not look like a honey bee


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## Wstaartje (Jul 18, 2021)

Tia said:


> Looking through one of my hives yesterday, I came across a bee--one bee--that was very, very pale. Very light gray, almost white, with dark gray stripes. She didn't have pink or pale eyes--dark and shiny like all the other girls--and she wasn't much smaller than the rest. She seemed perfectly healthy and none of the bees were treating her like a pariah, but she was definitely very light gray. It wasn't powdered sugar or anything--I checked. It's her true color. Was wishing I had my camera with me. Anyone every see one like this?


Yes thats possible. I also had a albino bee with white eyes. Very funny and no it wasn't something else. A real albino bee.


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