> Basically you'll run into two different strains that can be categorized
> as dark or light.  The dark bees (Midnight is an excellent example) are
> VERY gentle.  Being used to Italians you'll be AMAZED!!! at how gentle
> the dark bees can be!
 
Well here's the exception that proves the rule I guess...  I have one hive I
started last year with a Midnite queen and soon I had the meanest most ornery
hive I've seen.  They laughed at smoke and there would be a cloud of angry bees
that would follow you around for an hour or more after you closed up the hive
and left.  They were also good at finding chinks in the armor (ouch!)  However,
these bees weren't all that dark so I suspect the queen was superseded early on
and who knows what the new queen mated with (but if I didn't know better I'd
swear it was Africanized "killer" bees...).  I never did find the queen after
starting the hive so I don't know for sure about this.  It produced very well
however, so did the (much nicer) Buckfast next to it.
 
-Mike