( ! 7 ) 



Britain, except on an isolated island. 

 Supposing three miles were the limit of 

 flight of queens and drones, one would 

 have to ascertain by careful inquiry that 

 no bees were kept within a radius of over 

 six miles, and then one could not be sure 

 that no colonies existed in hollow trees or 

 in buildings, or that swarms might not 

 settle in the district. 



CONCLUSION. 



The foregoing evidence leaves no 

 room for doubt that the British Golden 

 bee is bred by selection in the strict 

 sense of the term that plants and 

 animals in which improvement has been 

 made have been -bred by selection, the 

 selection of the fathers having been 

 effected! by colour,* aided by (1) large num- 



Breeders of every kind of animal and 

 plant are agreed that the best way to 

 improve a character is to select and breed 

 for that character only in every successive 

 generation. Consequently I have had to 

 rather neglect other objects, as, for in- 

 stance, the improvement of temper. Yet 

 the temper of British Goldens has be- 

 come gentle of its own accord, probably 

 as the result of in-breeding, and It is 

 doubtful if it could have been improved 

 any better by selection : even the hybrids 

 are better-tempered than ordinary beesj 

 No attempt has been made to increase 

 the golden colour, and it does not extend 

 over so large a portion of the body as in 

 some American Goldens. There is, how- 

 ever, one character, the quality called 

 "constitutional vigour," which no breeder 



RIPPLE COURT APIART. 



bers of drones, (2) isolation as far as is 

 practicable, (3) restricted-mating weather, 

 and (4) mating late in the season. 



As was stated at the commencement of 

 these nbtes, the breeding by selection has 

 been carried on with the object of 

 improving the honey-producing char- 

 acter in the British climate, and each 

 spring the best honey-gatherers have been 

 very carefully selected for breeding pur- 

 poses from the pure stock bred the pre- 

 vious year. The result has been a steady 

 improvement noticed, not only in Ripple 

 Court Apiary, but in the, reports received 

 from people in different parts of the 

 kingdom who have tried British Goldens.f 



* For details of this method of breeding by selec- 

 tion, see my papers in the British Bee Journal, 

 vol. xxxiv., page 132, and vol. xxxv., pages 21 to 23. 



t See eiaden"8 *' Catalogue Of Bees and Qneens," 

 tenth edition. 



can afford to ignore, and which I regard 

 as of the greatest importance in bees. 

 Fortunately, this .character is closely asso- 

 ciated with honey-production; it is also 

 connected with hardiness, prolificness, and 

 disease-resisting, power, and all these good 

 qualities have been worked fdr with suc- 

 cess. There are many indications that 

 British Goldens are growing very hardy : 

 the golden-coloured bees were noticed to 

 be busily bringing in honey and pollen on 

 several days in May, 1909, when the tem- 

 perature was only 52 deg. to 54 deg. with 

 a strong breeze; there Was a marked 

 diminution in the proportion of queens 

 that failed to get mated in Ripple Court 

 Apiary this year, and there is good reason 

 for believing that several queens were 

 mated at the beginning of September in a 

 temperature of. about 61 deg., which is 



