"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...


In my posting I referred to "my bees" but in truth the colony lives in the
roof space of the house and has done so for the last 100 years (previous
owners family still live in the village and they say the house was bought
in
1904 with the bees in residence!), so are they likely to be the apis
mellifera mellifera you refer to? if so it would certainly explain why
mine
are doing so well, they are always active even on wet days like today

There are many kinds of a.mellifera, without looking at their DNA or
examining particularly wing venation under a microscope you can't tell. The
colony might well have been there for generations but they won't necessarily
be the same kind of bees - the queens could have mated with several drones
and there will have been many queens over the years.

Mary