Here's a pic from the net of an actual Carniolan Queen. Also look up Michael Palmer on youtube and take a look at his bees. Carni's is what he runs.
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Yeah, I know. Beggers can't be choosers I guess. The package supplier (a middle man for C F Koehnen in this case) said that because of a failure of some sort in their truck, packages containing Italian queens were hit very hard and that most of their customers looking for Italians would have to settle for Carniolans. Which is what I wanted and what I ordered to begin with... That queen was "no good" and was rejected, or chilled, or some combination of dead. The replacement queen is the one pictured and she looks very similar to the first. I remember looking at both of them thinking, "Carniolan's must have a wide range of colors."
I'm not caught up on it although I was hoping for Carni's because of the overwintering capabilities and consensus that they are better for northern climates. I'm just glad we have a happy hive and a laying queen!
Maybe the next two packages will be Carni's and we'll have some ability to compare the two races.
http://www.koehnen.com/#!queens/c215j
I've looked at this page more than once the last couple weeks and scratched my head.
