Honeybees:
Saskatraz, Italian, Carniolean, Caucasian, Buckfast, Russian, New World Carniolean: with various color traits such as black, grey, or more common yellow with black stripes.. The Cordovan is a color trait, recessive and may or may not be applicable to all above but generally attributed as Cordovan Italian.
All above bee types have unique traceable origins. Each offers specific traits such as varroa resistant, honey production, cold tolerance, small winter colonies, slow build, fast build, continuous large populations, populations directed by flow, gentleness, aggression, comb building, lack of swarming, or combinations thereof.
After a single breeding of the first generation the specific traits can be enhanced, eliminated, or maintained or acquired new traits. So, what?s my point? As a queen breeder I consider most bees to be mutts, but mutts with desired traits that reflect a given breed from above. Due to the fact that queens breed with so many drones maintaining a true breed is difficult.
So I take with a grain of salt when a beek mentions a breed. To me, if the honey bee
is grey I call it Caucasian, black is Carniolean, yellow black striped is Italian. Kind of over simplified I realize but there is no registry for honey bees as with mammals i.e. horses, cats, dogs etc.
Also, some honeybees can be maintained rather pure by geological or winter conditions. These special breeds can be selected and preserved over time but eventually the bees are shipped into other regions and the first generation breeds with local drones and the mutt slowly developes.
The individual beekeepers, that is you and I, monitor their bees and selects for their desired characteristics.
Conclusion:
I use bee breed names with a caviler attitude, as a general means of describing known or given traits such as Russians are known to be hygienic but tend to be more on the defensive side, but yield to the fact a true Russian honeybee may not exist in the USA.
Blessings