Waldemar wrote,

Has anyone heard of rather dark, runny Italian bees with almost black queens?  It occured to me that perhaps he had Amm, or Carniolans.


Brother Adam wrote in "Breeding the Honeybee"  - The Essential 
Characteristics of the Races of Bees  -  Ligustica:-  first three lines,

"This race embraces a number of clearly distinguishable varieties.  From 
the commercial and breeding point of view the best is the dark, 
leather-coloured bee which has its home in the Ligurian Alps.  The 
lighter coloured variety, which was at one time sent all over the world 
from the region round Bologna, proved satisfactory everywhere, but 
showed the drawbacks of the race more clearly than the darker bee".

Fwiw
Andrew Johnston

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