I can tell you that the Mother of my Bees last year (she was a Pastel, and dad was a Spider) is probably oine of the brownest Pastels you will find, and my Bees were some of the best looking Bees I have seen. I ended up keeping a pair, and they are both still very bright at 500 + grams. I am not saying that you should not try to find the best Pastel and Spider that you can, but I think the Spider may also have alot to do with how the Bees turn out. My original Spider that produced our Bees is a very lite Spider, and reduced pattern. I can only think that he had a good bit to do with the quality of our Bees.

Hope that helps,