Just to add a bit on the old Amm versus Italian (so called) here in
Australia. In the 1860 to 1880's the move was away from Amm to Italian
because the Amm could not handle wax moth. I am assuming it is the greater
wax moth and not lesser wax moth. There was also a move in the 1890's to
Cyprian bees but these seem to lose favour becuase they were a little
aggressive. So Italian has been the main ones with a lot of our ferals
being still a big percenatge of Amm. If you leave a hive in the bush and
let it supercede a couple of times, you will end up with a hive that is very
cranky, does not produce a lot of honey, has a lot of black bees and tends
to swarm.
FWIW
Trevor Weatherhead
AUSTRALIA
******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm *
******************************************************