Picking a bee

Im liking to pick up a bumble bee new in the near future. I've noticed a majority of them brown out as they grow up but I've also seen a few that don't. What do you look for in the hatchling if it's going to keep it's color?

Ask to see the parents.
I'd look for the brightest, cleanest yellow bees I could find. It might be a little bit of a wait, but it'd be worth it. Or you can start with high quality parents and make your own top notch bees.

I picked up this little girl a few weeks ago but shes prob going to be used for future firefly projects.
http://i990.photobucket.com/albums/a...niphone269.jpg

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Originally Posted by CLSpider

Ask to see the parents.
I'd look for the brightest, cleanest yellow bees I could find. It might be a little bit of a wait, but it'd be worth it. Or you can start with high quality parents and make your own top notch bees.

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Follow that advise...^^^ Look for one with the fewest brown speckles along the sides and back...the cleaner they are as babies, the cleaner they'll be as the grow...

I have one of each clean and dirty, I like them both for different reason.

genetics play a big role with them keeping nice color, like others have said stay away from the brown tones and look more for the bright clean yellow. I have a female that is over 2000 grams and almost 4 yrs old and she is still gorgeous without the typical browning out down the dorsal

Freakie_frog has a bumblebee that I must say is hot, ask him for hatchling pic vs adult. I look for clean over all, I'm not a huge fan of speckling. Contrast between body color and black pattern should be strong. Also more white in the sides, as high as you can get.

I had the same issue, that is why Picked this bee. I did not see the parents but I just picked him because of his very light color, hoping that he won't brown out when he gets old.

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...s/f38dbdc5.jpg

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Originally Posted by muzikfreakah

I had the same issue, that is why Picked this bee. I did not see the parents but I just picked him because of his very light color, hoping that he won't brown out when he gets old.

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/p...s/f38dbdc5.jpg

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And he looks like a good eater lol...chowing down...:D

Heres a Female I hatched out July 17th this year. Shes Had 2 sheds now and Not one brown scale on her. So its safe to say she wont brown like most bees.

Thats the down side to everyone and anyone jumping into buying anything and everything and breeding not caring about quality. Breed crap you get crap and bees are the example of it.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._8150913_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._7487914_n.jpg

I will have to second what the others have said.

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Originally Posted by fredanthony

Freakie_frog has a bumblebee that I must say is hot, ask him for hatchling pic vs adult. I look for clean over all, I'm not a huge fan of speckling. Contrast between body color and black pattern should be strong. Also more white in the sides, as high as you can get.

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That was the first thing that popped in my head when I opened this thread. She is wicked! She didn't really brown out, she grayed up! Search YouTube. He has some videos of her up.