My first introduction to bees was with packages of Carniolan species, imported from Australia. I have to say that these are very gentle and lovely bees to keep. I am coming into my 3rd year in beekeeping and I love the Carniolan. I have heard that they have a propensity for swarming, but I have not encountered any problems with this so far. They are always hard at work and never bother much when I work with their hive. On the other hand, I caught a swarm during my first summer of beekeeping and learned alot that summer about cranky bees. They must have had some nasty genes for sure. I kept this swarm through the winter and requeened it with a queen I had raised from my Carniolan colony. Not to say that this young queen was true to her genetics, because I am sure that possibly some drone from a neighbouring farm may have mated with her mother. I presume that then we have a mixed breed queen in this manner. Anyways, the temperament of this swarm changed, much more docile, but still not as sweet as the neighbouring Carniolan colonies. I lost this swarm hive to the varroa destructor mite, such a nasty infliction. There was such bad damage to this hive even before I realized what the signs were, too late, but I am prepped and ready. I have treated my hives with formic acid and will work with the icing sugar next year. I am endeavouring to never have the mite in such great numbers again. It actually decimated several of my colonies over time. Last summer I would see bees crawling around on the ground, some even long ways from their hives, being new to beekeeping, I thought that this was a natural die off, from bees wings fraying from so much work. Hmmm....so many things to learn about our dear girls. Regards, Cindi