( 8 ) 



lower than that noted in any previous 

 year. JMo difficulty has been found in 

 maintaining great prolificness in spring, 

 which is so valuable a feature in good 

 Italians. 



A great many good reports, some of 

 them from very cold and bleak localities, 

 have been received respecting the half- 

 bred bees produced by British Golden 

 queens mated to ordinary native drones.* 

 In many cases these bees have proved ex- 

 traordinarily industrious, hardy, and pro- 

 lific. With bees, as with cattle, sheep, 

 poultry, and fruit, the greatest profit is 

 often obtained from half-breds. It is for- 

 tunate that this is the case, because, in 

 ordinary circumstances, pure mating is so 

 rare and uncertain that, in introducing a 

 new breed into his apiary, the bee-keeper 

 who works for honey is compelled to let 

 it cross with the local variety. The cross- 

 ing imparts energy, which seems to result 

 from the blending of the golden and black 

 colours, or of characters associated with 

 them. This added energy, which means 

 so much more honey gathered, would have 

 been lost had the bred bee been black. 

 Besides, it has been shown that it would 

 be very difficult, if not impossible, to 

 breed a black bee by ■ selection in this 

 country. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



Like ordinary English black bees, British 

 Goldens are easily shaken from their combs 

 and are inclined to run about the hive 

 when disturbed. In these particulars 

 they differ and may be distinguished from 

 American Goldens and from Italians. 



The objection may be raised that, con- 

 sidering the impossibility of knowing 

 which drone out of thousands a queen may 

 meet, the breeding by selection on the 

 male side cannot be properly accomplisned. 

 But if we look at the work of plant 

 breeders we see that a similar uncertainty 

 often exists as to which flower will supply 

 the pollen by which the seed is fertilised. 

 Further, in cases where characters that 

 do not show themselves in the flowers, such 

 as the size, shape, or other qualities of 

 seeds or fruits, are bred for, the selection 

 of flowers is useless. It is only essential 

 that no flower shall be employed that is 

 not of the selected parentage or strain. 

 I think that even were it possible to 

 select single drones for breeding from, it 

 would not be advisable, for we may be 

 sure that the honey-bee depends partly 

 upon the natural selection of drones for 

 its vigour and usefulness. It is not 



* Bladen's " Catalogue of Bees and Queens," 

 tenth edition. 



asserted that one drone transmits exactly 

 the same characters as another, but this 

 uncontrolled element of variation is re- 

 duced to a negligible quantity by the em- 

 ployment of pure stock and continuous 

 careful selection. 



Of late years much progress has been 

 made in the general science of breeding, 

 and one of the valuable points that have 

 been brought to the front is the import- 

 ance of breeding from specimens that have 

 been proved to be best able to transmit 

 their desirable qualities to their offspring. 

 In the work carried on in Ripple Court 

 Apiary every queen bred from has, of 

 course, been proved to produce industrious 

 and vigorous workers; but it is desirable 

 to go further, and to breed from queens 

 that have been proved to be best able to 

 transmit to their queen-daughters the 

 power to produce such workers and any 

 other qualities bred for. For example, 

 the colonies produced by the daughters of 

 the "V" queen (all of which were golden- 

 coloured), when tested for utility and 

 vigour in 1909, did much better, on the 

 average, than the colonies produced by 

 the golden-coloured daughters of the " C " 

 queen ; consequently, a great number of 

 queens were bred from the "V" queen 

 and her daughters in 1909, but none were 

 bred either from the "C" queen or from 

 any of her daughters. It is true that 

 this method of breeding increases in-breed- 

 ing, but its value for fixing, maintaining, 

 and improving any particular type is un- 

 deniable, and breeders of other animals 

 have found that the danger of deteriora- 

 tion resulting from close in-breeding is not 

 so great as has been supposed, provided 

 the breeding stock is vigorous and healthy. 

 So far no sign of any ill-effect of in-breed- 

 ing has been detected in the British 

 Golden breeding stock. 



Up to the present the working of this 

 method of breeding has been somewhat 

 hampered by the work of quickly develop- 

 ing a distinctly British variety, this having 

 involved selecting a fresh generation each 

 year; but now that British Goldens have 

 become established as a separate breed, 

 the work of selection may well be spread 

 over two years if it can be accomplished 

 more thoroughly. All the breeding queens 

 selected in 1909, also a number of the 

 daughters of each of them, are being win- 

 tered. The testing of these daughters for 

 utility and vigour in 1910, together with 

 the re-testing of the breeding queens them- 

 selves, will probably show very clearly 

 which are the best of the breeding queens, 

 and from these best queens I hope to breed 

 largely. 



Printed at the London and County Printing Works, Brury Lane, London, W.O. 



