Tim Morris writes: "This is a hive that has only been allowed to requeen itself, and yet this hive still has the mix of Italians and Carniolians after 4 or 5 years. He is sure its a newer queen at this point..." The reason that both Italian and Carniolan bees are mixed in this hive is most likely due to the fact that when the new queen went on her mating flight, she mated with both Carniolan and Italian drones. The sperm load she is carrying consists of both phenotypes and is expressed in the offspring's appearance. I once had a hive that was originally Italians and the bees raised a new queen. After she came back and started laying, then about half my bees were dark and half were light. In this case, apparently the new queen mated with what we call over here the "German" dark bee drones as well as Italian drones. I suppose it is possible that the queen in a hive could be pure Carniolan and mate only with Italian drones and all the offspring could possibly phenotypically be Italian looking. I think there is nothing to be concerned about in having the mix. As a matter of fact, the greater the different number of daughter cohorts in a hive probably the better, because the different bees will have different traits and more of the various tasks in the hive will be accomplished more efficiently. As long as one of those traits is not extreme aggressiveness, I'd say chances are the unusual hive is a very good one due to its heterogeneity. Layne Westover College Station, Texas, U.S.A.