Difference in Bee Breeds

I am by no means an expert on the different bee breeds, but I will share with you some information I have found and what I have found in my experience. I have found a pretty basic web page that does a pretty good job of explaining the bee breeds.

In my experience the two most common types are either Italian or Carniolan.  You can also find a few other species of honey bee, but they are not as common in Utah. Then you have the Minnesota Hygenic or a VSH which I understand to be hybrids and not actual species of bees.

I will do my best to break down the difference between the Italian and Carniolan races.  Italians are the lighter golden color and the Carniolan are typically darker and sometimes even black.

Some pros and cons for the Italian race:

Pros - They are very gentle, builds up good in the spring, good honey producers and overwinters well .
Cons - They usually have large colonies even when there is low honey flow requiring more honey during the winter.  I have found they tend to have more mites than the Carniolans.  They tend to drift and rob.

Pros and Cons for the Carniolan:

Pros - They are very gentle, rapid spring build up, queen will slow down the laying in times of nectar dearths, overwinters in smaller populations, seems to be more resistant to diseases and mites, tends to forage in cooler weather, and good honey producer.

Cons - Because they build up so quickly in the spring they have a tendency to swarm, my experience is they tend to have more propolis.

I tend to favor the Carniolans, but I enjoy having the Italians as well.  Hopefully this helps in trying to determine what queen to select.