But the bees’ demeanor was not what interested the state inspector on that fall day in 2018. The official’s attention was trained instead on an entirely different characteristic: the bees’ color. A beekeeper in the forested Austrian state of Carinthia, Huter was proud of his colonies. His insects were industrious, healthy and so docile that he told the visiting state bee inspector there was no need to wear a bee suit or hat and veil. “My bees were too dark,” Huter recalled being told. “Leather brown-orange,” the inspector wrote in the state’s report. Advertisement To conform with the law, Huter...