Hi all
The publishers of "Bee World" have most thoughtfully made the entire 100 years available online to subscribers. It is fascinating to go back 100 years and see how the same discussion we have been having was ongoing then:

excerpted for review purposes only:

Since the dawn of modern Apiculture there has not been a time when there was such a dearth of bees in Britain. From Cornwall to Caithness the same sad tale is told of apiaries having been wiped out of existence by I.W. disease. Whole districts, almost counties, being swept clear of bees by this scourge. Various races have been experimented with and this has proved the most fruitful field yet tried. Personally I have tried many varieties of bees with varying results. Italian queens from two districts in Italy I found did not prove resistant; American-Italians I found to be better bees in many ways than those from Italy. This, I think, because of the cross of German blood in these American-Italians and also because of the careful way the American breeders have of breeding queens from proved stock. 

With regard to our native bee, what ? I am afraid there are no pure bred native bees in this country. Outside of a score or so of individuals whom I could name, there is no business in beekeeping in the British Isles. As an insignificant sideline, and as an interesting hobby, there are many thousands of individuals who keep bees, or who did keep them. These persons were often attracted, say, by the prettiness of Ligurians or the gentleness of Carniolans to try these amongst their two or three stocks, with the result that there has been an awful mix up of good, bad and indifferent blood. Another thing, our methods of instruction in this country have been against the upkeep of a strong virile race, every poor little lot being saved where possible, with the result that this country is, or was, peopled largely with a degenerate, weedy race that could not stand up against a virulent disease such as I.W. 

As to this Dutch Bee. Is it a race apart that can be labelled by the generic term "Dutch"? No, I don't think it is. My own opinion is that it is simply what has been known in Central Europe as the German bee. Dutch bee- keeping is, however, conducted on very conservative lines, with little, if any, intermixture of foreign blood. 

Isle of Wight Disease and Dutch Bees 
By RICHARD WHYTE, Cumbernauld, Dumbartonshire  (1919), Bee World, 1:1 

¶

FRESH BLOOD. 
We cannot all specialise in queen-rearing, and if we could, our strain of bees may not be worthy the necessary trouble. To depend on the maintenance of a good strain by leaving nature alone, is trusting to luck, and to depend upon the improvement of a strain by the chance fertilisation of our young queens by the drones from the apiaries of our more progressive neighbours, is unreliable and unsatisfactory. In bee breeding, as in breeding other live stock, fresh blood should be imported periodically, and when doing this we- should take such steps as are available to secure the best our pockets can afford. 

(1919) The Press Mirror, Bee World, 1:5, 100

¶

Professor Zander lays stress on a black colour, because this is the best proof that the influence of the bees from warmer climates has been eliminated. Other breeders consider only the results of the harvest, because some red bands on the bees were observed in central Europe, before Italian, Cyprian or Egyptian bees had been imported. v. Berlepsch, for instance, reported that while travelling in lower Austria 80 years ago, he examined thousands of bee hives, and found that about two per cent. of the bees had a red brown colour on the first segment of the abdomen. The opinion was prevalent, too, that the queens of the German bee race were of a uniformly dark colour, but in a booklet about bees, which was published in 1594, the queen is described as being somewhat longer than the other bees, and of a golden yellow or copper red colour. In another book published in 1770, the queen is described as being dark yellow. The demand of Professor Zander for a uniform dark colour does not therefore seem to be justified. In Austria we do not care to exchange our amiably tempered, industrious dark grey bees against vicious black ones, but we aim at improving the race steadily by breeding from those colonies only which have proved to be the best in every respect.

 A. Alfonsus (Editor) (1921) Annotations, Bee World, 3:8, 207-207

¶

As to the class of bee most suitable for general conditions, something depends on the work one has in view. For extracted honey production "hybrid" Italians in the third generation produce high yields, and give uniform results. In producing comb honey the old English native bee, where it can be procured in its pure state, can scarcely be excelled, though it is closely followed by Carniolans of second or third cross. 

But for breeding purposes the Italian bee will always remain a favourite race to work upon on account of the help given by fluctuations of colour in the various crosses following the first. For this reason colour is too valuable an asset to be ignored in any genuine attempt to improve and increase existing stock. 

A. H. Bowen (1921) Bee Breeding on the Cotswolds, Bee World, 3:8, 207-208, 

¶

For some considerable time the Beekeeping Department of the West of Scotland College of Agriculture has been conducting experiments with the various races of bees, more particularly with a view to discovering the most valuable strain of bee suitable for the south and west of Scotland, and for this purpose many colonies of the native race have been purchased from all parts of Scotland. It was the endeavour to obtain pure mating for this scheme that led us to conduct the experiments contained in this reportIn a very limited space we have at present 150 colonies of bees of various strains, including British, French, Austrian, Dutch, Italian, and Golden Italians.

Joseph Tinsley (Vice-President of the Apis Club; Lecturer in Beekeeping) (1925) Experiments on the Mating of Queen Bees, Bee World, 7:9, 126-127 

¶

The question of packing has raised much argument of late the bulk of the arguments against insulation being based on false presumptions. lt is said that it is not necessary to coddle the black bee, it is only the Italian bee that requires this ! It is not a question of race of bee, or even strain- it is entirely a matter of the life conditions of all members of the honey bee family.

Arthur M. Sturges (Vice-President Apis Club, Hon. Assoc., S.B.A. Expert Beemaster) (1925) Bee-keeping as a National Industry, Bee World, 7:9, 127-129

posted by Peter L Borst

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