I have 4 bumblebees-or do I

[bonniemarbles]

   I got 4 MK bumblebees in my 1st marble jar, put them in their little slot & forgot about them. As I was re-arranging marbles, I looked closer at my bees & found 3 had straight ribbon line ones & 1 had a blobby ones. The blobby-lined one 1 has the blackest lines, with blue tracer lines along the black lines.

The next one has a grayish/lavender half ribbon with white tracer lines under a complete blk.line, the third one had reddish brown lines & two orange tracer lines in the yellow top patch, & the last one looked like a normal bee. Are they all bees & is this an example of what you all mean by marble can vary & still be called the same thing- are my 4 all still bees? Do I have a messed up bee, a hybrid bee, a brown bee & a true bee, ,,,or am I overthinking the whole thing....   I think I have just enough knowledge about marbles to be dangerous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Steph]

All are Bumblebees.

 

The top left might be Pelt.  Others for sure MK. 

[Chad G.]

Yes looks pelt to me also Steph, Pelt Bumble bees with a blue tracer often have blue av. have you looked really close for trace amounts or very fine of av. , weather it be blue or not?? And yes Steph I agree absolutely with the MK on the other three. And I would say you have 2 different bumble bees, 1 pelt and 3 MK with variations of the same marble Bonnie

[bonniemarbles]

     I took the one I called messed up into the sun & the "blobs" turned out to be cobalt blue with little fine twinkles all over.  Quite the surprise, so glad I asked, I never would have thought !!!  It has a new home now,

[Chad G.]

Sounds like it's a pelt Blue Bee, rare and worth a couple hundred $$ at least, well above what the MK's are. The little twinkles if blue are blue av., you need at least a 10 x loupe to get s good close look to see what color the av. is unless it's so thick you can see it with your naked eye. If indeed a blue bee you should or I would definitely not let it roll around=d with a bunch of other mibs but at least put it into a little zip lock to preserve the surface, a very important factor in the value. A rare bee I see!!

New home yes!! I would put it in it's own little dog house. " nice mib "

[Steph]

Yep ... looks like I was wrong again!  LOL

Not a bumblebee after all.   

 

Blue Bees are coveted marbles.  Good job. 

[Chad G.]

You weren't wrong Steph, it is a Pelt, your post certainly "got me to look" I wonder if that's why they call us Pelt heads ??

[chocobogreens]

Is this one a Blue bee? 

[Chad G.]

No not a pelt, MK 100%, blue bees or other pelt NLR's have more well defined ribbons and don't fade into the base glass like 99% of veneered MK's on at least 1 ribbon, there are always exceptions, here are a few pics of pelt bees for you. I hope this helps you in determining the difference between a "pelt and a marble king" Pelt bees do not always have av. Finding one without is harder but still the ones with it are worth more. Sad but true I have no MK bumble bee's to share. There are still many more members of the pelt bee family I was just giving a few examples.

A BRONZE BEE, courtesy of AAM, loaded with bronze colored av. 

A BLUE BEE, courtesy of AAM with a little different ribbon pattern than Bonnies, loaded with

blue av.

A BUMBLE BEE WITH HVY. BRONZE AV. (some may consider this a bronze bee)

A RUBY BEE W/ AV.

TWO MORE BUMBLE BEES 1st ONE NO AV. SECOND ONE WITH AV.

ANOTHER SHOT OF THE SECOND ONE IN THE LAST PIC. SHOWING THE AV. IN THE SUN AND A LITTLE DIFFERENT GOLDEN BASE COLOR, and the more prevalent silver colored av.

[bonniemarbles]

     I got out my loupe ( a tenX)  & there are little blue stars everywhere, it's beautiful, like a galaxy in some spots, especially fanning out from the seams-  the ribbons have an orange peel look & in one spot there are larger AV spots that are almost a blue purple- I wish I could get pictures of it all,  Chad, thanks for alerting me to the possibilities of what the marble could be, because, to my shock, you were so right!