• Preface
• The Honeybee — then and now
• Nature as a Breeder
• Results of Recent Breeding Endeavours

1. Part I — The Theory of Breeding
   1. The Bee as a Member of a Social Unit
   2. The Way of Life of Bees and their Adaptability to Environment
   3. Why Bee Breeding is an Exceptional Case
   4. The Effects of Parthenogenesis
   5. The Pedigree of the Honeybee
   6. The Significance of Multiple Mating
   7. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Inbreeding
   8. Mendel’s Laws of Heredity
   9. Racial Purity in the Light of these Laws
   10. The Application of Mendelism to the Honeybee
   11. Chromosomes and Reduction Division
   12. The Reciprocal Influence of the Genes
   13. Results secured in the crosses indicated
   14. Polymeral Transmission
   15. Linked Characteristics
   16. The Limitations Imposed by Heredity
   17. Mutations
   18. Synthesising New Combinations
   19. The Limits Imposed on Us
   20. Sex Determination
   21. A Word of Warning about Mere Theory
2. Part II — Practical Possibilities in Breeding
   1. Preliminary Remarks
   2. The Aims of Breeding
   3. The Economic Goals in Breeding
   4. The Primary Qualities for Performance
      1. Fecundity
      2. Industry or Foraging Zeal
      3. Resistance to Disease
      4. Disinclination to Swarm
   5. Secondary Qualities
      1. Longevity
      2. Wing-power
      3. Keen Sense of Smell
      4. Instinct for Defence
      5. Hardiness and Ability to Winter
      6. Spring Development
      7. Thrift
      8. Instinct for Self Provisioning
      9. Arrangement in the Honey Stores
      10. Wax Production and Comb Building
      11. Gathering of Pollen
      12. Tongue – reach
   6. Qualities which Influence Management
      1. Good Temper
      2. Quiet Behaviour
      3. Disinclination to Propolise
      4. Brace Comb
      5. Cleanliness
      6. Honey cappings
      7. Sense of Orientation
   7. Breeding as a means of Combating Disease
   8. Resistance to Acarine
   9. Contradictory Reports
   10. Diseases of the Adult Bee
       1. Acarine
       2. Nosema
       3. Paralysis
       4. Bacterial Septicaemia
   11. Diseases of the Brood
       1. American Foulbrood
       2. European Foulbrood
       3. Sac Brood
       4. Chalkbrood
       5. Anomalies of the Brood
   12. Evaluation of Performance
   13. Breeding Procedures
   14. Nature’s Method of Breeding
   15. Pure Breeding
   16. Line Breeding
   17. Cross Breeding
   18. Combination Breeding
   19. Development of New Combinations
   20. Intensive Selection
   21. Some Results in Combination Breeding
   22. Multiple Hybrids
3. Part III — An Evaluation of the Breeding Possibilities of the Different Races of Honeybees
   1. Introduction
   2. Nature’s Aims in Breeding
   3. Acclimatisation
   4. Environment
   5. Standards of Reference
   6. Biometric Findings
   7. My Searches
   8. The Essential Characteristics of the Races of Bees
      1. Ligustica
      2. Carnica
      3. Sub-varieties of the Carnica
      4. Cecropia
      5. Caucasica
      6. Anatolica
      7. Fasciata Race Group
      8. Fasciata
      9. Syriaca
      10. Cypria
      11. Adami
      12. Intermissa Race Group
      13. Intermissa
      14. Sub-varieties of the Intermissa
      15. Northern European and North Asia Sub-varieties
      16. Apis Mellifera Major Nova
      17. Sahariensis
   9. Results of the Evaluations in Relation to the Buckfast Strain
   10. The Genetic Resources
   11. Conclusion

• Glossary

Undeniably, Brother Adam is the world’s leading authority on the races and strains of honeybees. His world-wide travels in search of bees and his beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey inspire vast admiration from people both in and out of the beekeeping fraternity. In this latest work of Brother Adam, we come very near to his baring of the soul and we learn of the philosophy, the science and the practice of his life’s work - breeding the honeybee.

One could hardly say that Brother Adam is completely modest though about his accomplishments. Bee breeding in the past, we are told, has been beset with problems, mainly because of a too amateurish approach which has prevented any real progress from being made. His ‘70 years of unremitting effort’ has put him in a unique position, and his ‘first hand knowledge of virtually all the races of honeybee ... are an essential prerequisite to any serious attempt at an improvement of the honeybee on a genetic basis’.

And the honeybee does need improvement - to show this, a large section of the book describes in great detail the merits and faults of almost all the known races. One would expect, of course, that native bees, confined to certain geographical regions would, through the process of natural selection, be ideal for the area in which they were found. Not so, says Brother Adam, ‘Nature never breeds for performance, but only to preserve a particular type’ and ‘another bee brought in from a totally different environment can produce results which on average surpass those of the native bee’. However, the supplanting of the indigenous race with a new race is not the answer, for Nature, we are told, has never bred anything as yet which could be called ‘an ideal or perfect bee, one which would answer all the demands of a modern beekeeper’. What nature has done though, is to leave for the ‘purposeful bee breeder of today’ the raw materials for the synthesisation of the ideal bee.

And what is the ideal bee? It is basically one which gives high averages of honey with the minimal expenditure of labour. Thus, bees are required with qualities which help to achieve this goal, and in an interesting chapter Brother Adam describes the qualities he looks for in his stocks. The primary qualities he wants are fecundity, industry, resistance to disease and a disinclination to swarm. He then describes twelve other secondary qualities which are important including, for example, longevity, wing power and a keen sense of smell. Characteristics which influence management are then described - the chief ones being, of course, good temper, calm behaviour and a disinclination to propolise and build brace comb. There then follows a more detailed look at resistance to disease and we are told of the great advances made in resistance to acarine with the Buckfast strain. Brother Adam is convinced that much improvement in resistance to other maladies is possible, though he emphasises that susceptibility to diseases is largely due to loss of vigour as a result of inbreeding.

Indeed, throughout this work Brother Adam looks upon inbreeding as the road to failure. The bee is a naturally out-crossing organism and the mating of queens some distance from the colony and with a number of males shows clearly what nature intended for the honeybee. There is amongst the races of bees an important genetic pool (which must be kept pure for future use - even reservations set up) from which the breeder can draw valuable breeding material. From this pool the breeder can select the characteristics he would like to see in his strain. The crossing of races, the selection and intensification of particular characteristics and the production of stable lines or strains - ie combination breeding, is the only way in which breeding for performance can succeed.

In order for us to understand what exactly this involves Brother Adam gives a background to genetics with details of Mendel’s Laws of Heredity, and shows how this appertains to the honeybee, with occasional reference to other examples in plant and animal breeding. This section occupies a large part of the book and illustrations help to clarify the text. We are reminded in this section that Brother Adam is indebted to, and draws upon, the work of Prof. Dr. Armbruster to whom also the book is dedicated.

This book is certainly a contribution to bee breeding and many beekeepers would share the same economic goals which Brother Adam seeks; the section on racial characteristics is more detailed than could be found in any other work and makes fascinating reading. Many people would however not share Brother Adam’s view that combination breeding is the only way forward for good performance. In many branches of animal husbandry pure breeds are being seen as superior to hybrids and with careful programmes close inbreeding to such an extent that it effects performance adversely, is prevented.

What does worry me is that the synthesisation of a new strain, its commercial exploitation and inevitable spread throughout many areas, would lead to the upsetting of many breeding programmes of beekeepers. The final lines of Brother Adam’s book read: ‘The maintenance of the races with their original hereditary wealth and individuality is a pre-requisite for any progress in the honeybee’. He is right, but such bees should not be restricted to the reservations he describes.