182 AUSTRALIAN BEE LOBE AND BEE CULTURE- 



CHAPTER XXX. 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE BEE HIVE. 



Having already described rather lengthily the best localities and 

 the most suitable surroundings for bee-farms in New South Wales, 

 also the situations, the positions, and the arrangements most 

 adaptable for bee-culture both for profit and pleasure, here, it is 

 my intention to write about their habitat, and the rise, develop- 

 ment, and progress of their artificial homes. 



The domestication of the bee became a thing of necessity, as 

 being one of the sources from which man was to obtain a food 

 supply at once nutritious, healthful, and palatable. The transition 

 of the bee from a state of nature to the care of man is but a grade, 

 and that an easy and simple one. They seem to have been designed 

 more for domestic life than for a wild one. Their social 

 habits, their swarming instinct, the mildness of their temper 

 when leaving the parent stock and whilst on the wing, or cluster- 

 ing, and the ease with which a cluster of bees can be transferred 

 from where they alight to an artificial home, at once stamps them 

 as an ally for a food-supplying force that could not be overlooked. 



Their indigenous home appears to have been in Palestine from 

 whence they spread the "wide world o'er." All varieties of social 

 bees have a strongly migratory instinct, and this is greatly assisted 

 by the ease with which they can be transported to places far and 

 near. The only barriers that are placed in their way to a natural 

 distribution over the whole earth are extensive areas of water and 

 expansive treeless plains. They are enabled to live in any climate 

 where there is warmth sufficient for members of the vegetable 

 kingdom to flower and produce honey and pollen. Their natural 

 habitat are trees and rocks wherever they can find cavities suffi- 

 ciently large for lodgment, the storing of food, and the reproduc- 

 tion of their species. These natural homes are chosen with every 

 regard for health, perfect ventilation, and freedom from drip or 

 other dampness. If, after they have chosen a home, they discover 

 that the rain trickles through, as soon as it is dry they at once set 

 to work to repair the oversight. Quantities of propolis are brought 

 into requisition, and the leak is permanently and effectually 

 stopped. I once, on the banks of the Murrumbidgee, found a 



