Allen Dick writes:
>I got to wondering about Dee's info at Barry's site since I
>mentioned it recently.  I see that it has evolved considerably and
>is worth a read. http://www.beesource.com/pov/ahb/index.htm

On the subject of bee breeding, they have this to say:

>1. COLOR.
>Color is of paramount importance in the breeding of honeybees. What
>price has industry paid for down-playing the importance of color in
>bee breeding to the detriment of our colonies, for color delineates
>hot-weather (yellow) bees from cold-weather (black/brown) bees or
>put in other words, - Tropical Zone bees from Temperate Zone bees.
>This is a major natural biological division within nature and
>therefore must be observed in bee breeding.

This is in apparent contradiction to information that I have seen.
Not only is there no such thing as a north/south color delineation,
but the various races vary considerably in color within their own
populations. And traditionally, breeders in America have tried to
enhance these color differences:

>The color of the Italian bee we know in North America is usually
>rather light -- a somewhat muddy yellow -- well defined light bands
>of yellow on the abdomen. In Italy this bee shows greater variation
>in color, usually being darker than its western counterpart. ... In
>shape and size the Caucasian bee resembles the Carniolan. It tends
>to be brown in color, with brown spots... Like the Italian bee in
>its homeland, the Caucasian bee varies in color more at home than in
>America where it has selectively been bred for grayness. ... The
>Black Bee of North America has varied from black to brown depending
>on what part of Europe contributed it. Just as the Italian bee
>varies in color and disposition, the Black-Brown bee varies. ... The
>Cyprian bee is smaller than the Italian and more reddish. The
>Sicilian bee is black in color, it is closely related to the black
>bee of North Africa.
>
>The Tellian bee is found in North Africa, north of the Sahara and
>from Libya to the Moroccan coast. ... Brother Adam says it is jet
>black. The Rif bee of Morocco is between dark and yellow. ... The
>Egyptian bee has striking gray-white stripes on the worker bees.
>Apis mellifera nubica is perhaps the smallest bee measured to date.
>Its habitat is the Sudan. It is a very yellow bee; the body is
>short. Apis mellifera scutellata is called the yellow African bee.
>It is an intensely aggressive bee. Apis mellifera monticola is a
>mountain bee, large, dark and very gentle. It thrives in the
>Tanzanian mountains.  -- from ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture

  Brother Adam states in 1983:

>As we can see, Nature has in no way produced the "best bee" or an
>"ideal bee", still less a race if bees which answers all the desire
>and needs of the modern beekeeper. The results of evaluating the
>different races makes one thing clear: every race has its advantages
>and it drawbacks, its good and bad characteristics linked together
>and emphasized in a host of different ways, which have been
>determined arbitrarily and by chance. Each race comprises a number
>of good and indifferent strains, with by far the majority in the
>latter category.
>
>Breeding experiments up to the present have bee have been confined
>to the improvement and intensification of uniformity of particular
>races, but these will never be adequate to meet the demands of the
>future. Inbreeding brings about in the honeybee a serious
>deterioration of vitality which raises insurmountable problems in
>many directions. -- from "In Search of the Best Strains of Bees.

In the SMRT lines that I have seen, the color is all over the map.