Italian or Russian?

Talking bees, not salad dressing.

Bees in California tend to be Italian or Russian, so say other beekeepers. It is not unusual for me to ask the same bee question of two beekeepers and to be given wildly different responses, each believable.

Now, what kind of bees do I have? The photo on the left is a bee walking on my wooden hive while the other photo is a bee in a backyard rose at a location where I don’t have any man-made hives. The bees are 192 miles apart! I’m going with Italian on the hive and Russian in the rose–détente, baby! Let me know if you disagree.