Types of italian honey bees

VARIETIES OF ITALIAN BEES

I see advertised at least four varieties of Italian bees: the yellow Italian, the dark Italian, the three banded Italian, and the leather colored Italian. What is the difference in relation to production, gentleness, and disease resistant qualities?

The question you raise is a good one and one on which many people have very definite ideas. In an organism like the honey bee where natural mating operates as it does, these color variations occur. The breeder can pretty well control the color he wants in his bees, but unless he pays strict attention to other bee characteristics, the variation of a characteristic such as gentleness could be great. In other words, bees selected primarily for their color could exhibit wide variations in other characteristics such as honey production, temper etc. So there is no good reason why the color of the Italian variety should be associated with other general bee characteristics. This is not to say that a particular breeder might not select for other specific characteristics in addition to color. It just means that you cannot associate color varieties with other desirable characteristics and be sure of being right.