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drones of the dark local bee -- and with appropriate selection their descendants also -- proved to be resistant to the mites. At about the same time, Prof. Ludwig Armbruster published his "Bee-breeding Manual". It was a book dealing mainly with the breeding possibilities of the honeybee based on Mendel's theory.

"This book, as well as my own experience of resistance breeding against the tracheal mite, brought home to me the infinite possibilities of breeding and together they motivated me in my efforts concerning the breeding of the honeybee."

The Development of the Buckfast Apiary

Things were not looking too good at the Abbey's apiary. Not only the tracheal mite, but also the multitude of beehives and frames made work difficult. In 1915 they started modernization and unification to bring things in line with the usual English practice. "The most modern beehives according to the latest knowledge at the time." A particular experience influenced not only the further development of the Abbey's apiary, but also and even more the further apian development of the young monk Adam.

"I soon realized that you could not treat the far more fertile Italian bee in the same way as the original English dark bee. Under the suspicious eyes of my colleagues, I left two brood boxes with a total of 20 kg of honey as winter food for an especially good colony. In the following spring this colony turned out to be by far the strongest. Without any further assistance it was ready for action at the beginning of the fruit blossom season and it caused no work whatsoever throughout the summer, except for the addition of further supers, six of which were needed altogether. At the end of the apian year, this experimental colony, with all its supers towered above the bee gardens like a lighthouse."

Until 1923, bees were kept at Buckfast, according to the latest findings, with 2 brood boxes per colony (English federation norm, British standard) and with a larger amount of winter food, mainly heather honey. It was mainly technical consideration that motivated Brother Adam to try out a new, larger frame size on an experimental basis.

"I was anxious to have a frame size and a brood box that would fill the needs of even the most fertile queen. As I in fact saw no advantage in the use of the English federation norm with 2 brood boxes per colony and the same way of operating in Langstroth norm, I decided, exclusively for technical reasons, on a Dadant-hive with 12 brood combs. I did so in spite of the warnings I had received from all sides that I would get no crops on the heath with an incubator of this size, as the bees would either convert it all into brood or, due to the late season, would store the collected honey exclusively in the brood box. As these warnings came from