REPRINTED FROM "BRITISH BEE JOURNAL; 



BREEDING THE 

 BRITISH GOLDEN BEE 

 in Ripple Court Apiary. 



HOW MATING 



CONTROLLED. 



By 

 F. W. L. SLADEN, 



to: 



" There can be no doubt that crossing, with the aid of rigorous selection during 

 several generations, has been a potent means in modifying old races and in forming 

 new ones."— Charles Darwin. 



Breeding together successive generations 

 of bees that gather the most honey, with 

 the object of obtaining and improving a 

 variety that will gather more honey than 

 ordinary bees in the British climate — 

 which during the season of bee-activity 

 is cooler, more windy, and more cloudy 

 than that of other countries in which bees 

 are bred — has been carried on in Ripple 

 Court Apiary, near Dover, from about 

 1892 until the present time. The work 

 was begun with English-Italian hybrids, 

 these having been found often to produce 

 larger honey-yields than ordinary English 

 bees and the queens to be more prolific. 

 During 1901, 1902, and 1903 these bees 

 were crossed with a good strain of Ameri- 

 can Goldens. Since 1903 none but queens 

 bred in Ripple Court Apiary have been 

 allowed to produce queens and drones 

 there. In order to ensure the fathers 

 being of selected parentage, it was found 

 necessary to maintain the golden colour, 

 because by no other means can the pro- 

 geny of queens mated with drones of 

 selected parentage be readily distinguished 

 from the progeny of those mated with ordi- 

 nary English black drones. A golden bee, 

 differing in many respects . from the 

 American variety, has been the result. 



One new generation is bred each year. 

 About fifty golden-coloured queens, bred 

 the previous season from the best honey- 

 gathering parentages and producing 

 mostly or only golden-coloured workers, 

 have the honey-gathering characters of 

 their colonies carefully compared in May 

 and June, attention being also paid to 

 hardiness and prolificness. As many 

 drones as possible are bred from about 

 six or seven of the best of these queens 

 and the queens from three or four of the 

 very best, a few queens and drones being 

 also bred, chiefly earlier in the season, 

 from a particularly good breeding queen 

 or two of the previous year. 



In recent years records have been made 

 of the colouring of- the workers produced 

 by the queens mated at Ripple Court 

 Apiary under various conditions. These 

 records have shed some useful light on the 

 conditions under which select matings take 

 place, making it possible to secure them 

 better and more easily than formerly. 



The subjoined tables give the records 

 of the matings of all the golden-coloured 

 queens of known parentage, mated from, 

 and tested in, small nuclei in Ripple 

 Court Apiary in 1908: — 



QUEENS OF 



PARENTAGE. 



This parentage produced only golden- 

 coloured queens and workers. 



QUEEN OP "d" PARENTAGE. 



This parentage produced only golden- 

 coloured queens and workers. 



33|July 6|FR| 8 golden to 2 intermediate! 16 days 



QUEENS OP 



PARENTAGE. 



This parentage produced about nine 

 goldens to one intermediate. 



July 12 

 Aug. 4 



4 

 4 



17 



3 golden to 



10 



7 intennediate 18 days 

 •7 „ I 6 

 2 „ 6 

 2 „ 6 



„ 11 



1 „ 11 



8 „ 8 

 „ Il9 



