Bumblebees

So I'm looking into purchasing a bumblebee in a few months, but I'm not a huge fan of the whole 'browning out' deal.. is there any way to select a bee that this is less likely to happen with? Or should I suck it up and shell out the cash for a Killer Bee if I dislike the browning that much?

Thanks :)

If you get a really nice looking one it usuallys holds its color out a little better.

Yellows usually stay fairly yellow. Orange turns brown. If you see a bright yellow baby with as little orange/tan as possible it will hold it's color fairly well. Especially with pastel combos, you'll probably pay a little more than the average bee for a good one, but it's worth it. Want quality, you have to buy quality, and quality usually isn't cheap lol.

Yeah, I don't mind paying more for a higher quality bee, I just don't know how to recognize one :)

Bright yellows and minimal tan/orange. I will keep that in mind :)

I don't know if there is a technical term for it, but try to find one that looks clean. They will age better.

For example here is my girl Kali when I got her:
http://i1139.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_0909.jpg

As you can see she's not very clean in color (maybe uniform would be a better term).
This is how she looked in January to give you some idea of how she aged:
http://i1139.photobucket.com/albums/...2/IMG_4268.jpg

She has held some of her yellow very well, but she's no where near as nice as my other bee Stella:
http://i1139.photobucket.com/albums/...2/IMG_4252.jpg

Stella is about half the size of Kali but you can see that she looks much nicer. If I remember correctly she was headed into shed in that picture too. I believe she is going to hold her yellow color very nicely. :)

I hope that helps some in addition to what everyone else has said.

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Originally Posted by Kinra

I hope that helps some in addition to what everyone else has said.

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Thanks very much, the pictures are very helpful :D

The pigment in a scale rarely changes color completely in ball pythons. It may turn a lighter or darker shade but usually not a completely different color. There are exceptions to every rule keep in mind. My point is that if a hatchling bee has a significant number of darker colored scaled peppering the yellow, than it will most likely be a darker "browned out" bee as an adult. The reason is simply because as an adult the scales are much larger and therefore much more noticeable. Think about it like the pixels in your computer's paint program. If you were to paint a solid yellow background and then use the spray can to spray one short burst of brown, the brown would not be very noticeale because the brown pixels would be so small. But if you were to then zoom in 100X on the area with the brown pixels, all of the sudden the overall picture would start to look more brown because the brown pixels are now larger and therefore catching your attention more easily. If you take a close up look at the scales of the bee, or any morph, it will give you a better idea of what it will look like as an adult. If you notice alot of scales that aren't yellow mixed in among the yellow scales, then chances are that the snake will not hold its color well. If you find a bee with minimal dark "flecking" through the yellow, then chances are you will be happy with the way the snake looks as an adult. BUT if you are super turned off by "browning out" than I suggest you spend the money on a super like you thinking, they are amazing looking animals!! I hope this little analogy helps.

If you dont mind spending more, i would look at Bumblebellys. That is a pastel/spider/yellowbelly. The yellowbelly cleans up the pastels and brightens them up as well. Most bubmlebellys hold the yellow amazingly and they are genetic powerhouses if you ever want to breed.

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Originally Posted by interloc

If you dont mind spending more, i would look at Bumblebellys. That is a pastel/spider/yellowbelly. The yellowbelly cleans up the pastels and brightens them up as well. Most bubmlebellys hold the yellow amazingly and they are genetic powerhouses if you ever want to breed.

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X2
Our atleast save alittle more for the Killerbee. They are already pretty cheap for a 3 gene animal and should be even less in a few months when babies start hatching out.