White honey and blond drones

I have an apiary where i keep all my best colonies, where Queens are raised and mated.  All of the Queens in this apiary are related in some way, sister, mother, aunt, cousin.  And yet just one of these colonies produces the lightest coloured drones, I have not found them in any of the other colonies in the apiary, they seem to stay where they were born.

They really are the nicest drones I have seen.  For non-beekeepers, a drone is the male honeybee and is larger than his sisters, the workers.










Another colour oddity has occurred this week, the first honey we extracted crystalised within 48 hours.  Almost certainly contains a large proportion of oil seed rape,  since setting it has been gently warmed and stirred with a stainless steel paddle to prevent it from re-setting.  It came from several hives in different apiaries about 10 miles apart, and yet this honey has all turned out white.  I can only assume the farmers in this area are using a new variety, because this is the first time we have had white honey.

On the plus side it tastes lovely, a very light flavour.  Goodness knows what our customers are going to think.