> Color me baffled by the points made. > You are not alone. What I have taken away from all this is that if a bee in identified as xxx, it is actually a mix. To which I say so....? There are mixes and there are mixes There is probably not a "pure" anything on the planet but there are certainly many "impure" things that have definite characteristics and can be thought of as pure. So maybe that Carnie is not 100% pure but has characteristics that define them as Carniolans, which many of us here have seen in our own apiaries. And I would purchase the stock from the supplier again knowing what I was going to get. All the other stuff was just as you described- that I should not trust the commercial suppliers.To me that was way too much a blanket indictment, even split into Eastern and Western suppliers. So what is new with caveat emptor? There are always good guys and bad guys. (Guys is not meant to specify specific genders but applies to all, including walrus.) Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html