Italian bees are yellow in color, relatively gentle, overwinter well and build up quickly in spring.
They are easily provoked to rob weaker neighboring colonies and sometimes exhaust honey stores rapidly in winter. These bees originated in the Austrian Alps, northern Yugoslavia and the Danube valley. Carniolan bees construct new comb slowly and swarm frequently. Caucasian bees , Apis mellifera caucasica - These bees originated in the Caucasus mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas. They are lead-gray in color, very gentle and swarm infrequently.