I thank all of you who referred me to the BEE Culture article.  I
>      have read it several times and it is extremely helpful in
>      understanding the different characteristics of the races and what was
>      observed over a short period of time.  But it did not give a
>      races to conduct my own experiments (as of yet).
>         I thank you all again in advance for all the help your discussions
>      are to me and other new beekeepers as we "listen in".  Bear with us as
>      we ask what may be naive (shall I say ignorant) questions and share
>      your "war stories".
>      Mark Egloff
>      Dayton, Ohio
>      [log in to unmask]
>      2 Hives of Italians, Plans for more.
>
    Hello Mark, You brought up a question which has no real answer to it.
Because of the cross breeding and lack of a new fresh gene pool , we have
bees with traits and color. I have read about Italians that were dark in
there native land. So color is not the complete way of telling what you
have .
   I have been down in California picking up bees and queens. I was
picking the queens out of the nucs myself. We were in a yard that had
Carniolans. I did see plenty of light Queens. ( about 5%) So I talked to
the breeder about the Queens color. He was breeding for traits like lack
of swarming ect.
  We do need more work on breeding bees for the beekeeper. I know that
there are some very good people working on parts of the puzzle. The mite
is only one part and the egg pattern is another. The picture is rather
complex and it needs to have a quality control list that all the breeders
are working to.
 I wish I could tell you what bees would do best in your area. Maybe look
to Canada.
 What ever bees that you start with , you will learn and enjoy that
wonderful insect.
 Good Luck
Roy Nettlebeck
Tahuya River Apiaries
Tahuya Wash.