26 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE- 



CHAPTER VI. 



BEE-KEEPING. 



The natural history of bees and their economy are subjects that 

 have attracted the attention of man for many ages. The most 

 ancient writings, sacred and profane, are frequently interspersed 

 with references to bees and their habits. In the earliest Jewish 

 sacred writings both bees and honey are often mentioned. Honey 

 is first mentioned when Joseph was in Egypt. These early people 

 were impressed with the value of honey as food, and also with the 

 wonderful peculiarities in the habits of the bee. Aristotle and 

 other ancient philosophers did not deem the subject of too trivial 

 a nature for investigation. Virgil and other early historians and 

 scientists of that day patiently pursued the same track with a zeal 

 worthy of the men and times. It was not until towards the close 

 of the 17th century that any practical means and appliances were 

 constructed for looking into and observing the bees actually en- 

 gaged in their domestic duties. Francis Huber, born 1750, and 

 died 1831, was one of the most zealous workers in apiculture that 

 the world had ever seen, notwithstanding that he laboured under 

 the great physical defect of the deprivation of sight. « In his 

 labours he was greatly assisted by his wife and man-servant. In 

 more modern days, Dzierzon was an indefatigable investigator of 

 bee-life. Professor Cook says of him: — "As a student of practical 

 and scientific apiculture he must rank with the great Huber." 

 Latterly apicultural societies have been formed in every civilised 

 country — those of Europe, America, and Australia, being in the 

 van. 



A hive of bees in the spring and summer time is made up of a 

 mother-bee and her sons and daughters, but late in the autumn it 

 is composed of a mother and daughters only. The inmates of a 

 hive are not of "three different kinds" — an error of Aristotle and 

 other early historians, and perpetuated by many writers of these 

 modern days. They are all of one sort or kind. They differ only 

 in sexes. There are not three sexes — they are males and females. 

 The drone is not a different sort of bee to the queen, neither is 

 the worker a different sort to the queen or drone. Upwards of 

 2000 years ago, when the honey-bee first began to draw the atten- 



