It's a bee of a different color!

Genetics fascinate me. As a soon-to-be-father, I wonder what characteristics my son will inherit from my wife and I. The easy part of 'genetic game' of my son is that we know with what we are dealing. His various features will either favor me (and my lineage) or my wife (and her lineage). What in the world does this have to do with beekeeping - stay with me :)

I recently went into the hive with the hive-produced queen, after removing the original queen to prevent a swarm. When I was observing the bees, I noticed an increasing population of black bees. The image below shows the 'golden' italian honey bees and this new black variety.

A queen travels to a 'honeymoon' spot which, like the royal honeymoon of Kate and William, no one knows the exact location. Drones from local hives all travel to this unknown spot and  await visiting queens. Each queen is inseminated by as many as 40 drones during her mating flights between 60-100 feet midair. The queen does not mate with drones within the hive as genetic diversity would be compromised. What is the Spermatheca?

These flights at the beginning of her adult life are all she needs to lay 2000 eggs per day for 3 years. I have read that the hive knows with with how many drones she has mated, based on the variation of a certain pheromone. By not mating with enough drones, the hive can reject the queen. Reference. While this queen seems to have increased the genetic diversity of the hive, there were about three supercedure cells; there is some undesirable trait. 

There was also one swarm cell which I promptly destroyed. 

Color variations on 'banding'