> 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