>If your caucasians are building more bridgework and filling up spaces
>more than my italians then I feel sorry for you Bob!
>
>Regards,
>Harry Sweet
>N. California
>
>
Harry;
        I doubt that one can find any authentic caucasians in the USA at this
time. There are, however, bees that will aproximate some of their
characteristics. The complaint about the caucasians 50 years ago was that they
gathered too much propolus and gummed up the hive.
        In truth, when I bought some bees that had Italian queens I was amazed
at how little propolus and burr comb there was. The problem with them, in
California, was that when the spring rains came they had to fed heavily or they
would starve because they did not stop raising brood when the nectar flow
stopped. I remember carrying sacks of sugar through the snow to feed bees that
were getting stiff on the comb.
        Now, the Caucasian queens would stop laying eggs when the snow and rain
cut off the nectar flow.
        The queens called Caucasian and Carniolan were for many years selected
by color because that was the only criteria we had. We tried to keep some other
desired qualities but I doubt that they would be recognizable if compared to
Caucasians from Russia. The Italians were selected for color, also so the
original traits of the various breed were largely lost.
        We must depend on the abilities of various queen breeders to provide the
traits we want.
        Anyway, I wasn't referring to the bees I have now. They are hybrids of
everything and anything available. We still have a lot of feral bees and swarms
here in Hawaii and they are developing tropical traits because so many of us
have used swarms to build our poplulations. Bees that swarm breed descendants
that swarm.