LOCATIONS AND BUILDINGS 9 



The "Hybrid" so called, is a cross-bred of the 

 Black and Italian races. Cyprian bees are not very 

 plentiful in Australasia, as only one or two apiarists breed 

 this variety. They are very handsome in appearance, of 

 a bright golden colour, but a certain irritability of temper 

 makes them rather unpopular. The Carniolan bee can 

 scarcely be distinguished from the Black bee. Throughout 

 this book it is intended to deal only with the first three 

 breeds mentioned. Other breeds in Australasia are a 

 negligible quantity. 



LOCATIONS AND BUILDINGS. 



WHERE TO KEEP BEES. 



Having made some acquaintance with bees of various 

 races, the novice makes up his mind to keep a few colonies 

 of bees to satisfy innate curiosity and incidentally to get 

 some honey. In short he intends to become the proud 

 possessor of a bee-farm. See Figs. 3, 4, 5. Now you 

 cannot have a bee-farm, unless you have a suitable 

 location. If you live in the city you will soon discover 

 that half a dozen or so colonies (a colony is a swarm of 

 bees with queen, brood, and combs in a frame-hive) are 

 about the limit. 



The amount of pasture in the cities is not great, and 

 the risk of bees getting diseased is increased a hundred- 

 fold. Therefore the prospective apiarist must hark back 

 to the great Eucalyptus forests of the State in which he 

 resides, or seek the huge lucerne fields of New South 

 Wales and Victoria, or, perhaps, the clover fields of New 

 Zealand. In southerly Victoria, especially the province 

 of Gippsland, hundreds of acres of clover furnish a short 

 term of pasture. Along the flats bordering the Tarwin 

 river, strawberry clover waves knee-high in the Southern 

 Ocean's breeze. But the yield of honey from clover is 

 not large, so the professional "honey-grubber" seeks 

 the wealth of the indigenous forests. 



