30 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
bee-keeper needs a hive for his convenience, but the 
first essential of a bee’s true home is the comfort 
and well-being of the little inhabitant ; therefore, let 
us now consider ■ hives for bees. In 1874, the Hon. 
and Rev. H. Bligh presented me with a portion of a 
bush in which an escaped swarm had built a con- 
siderable quantity of comb, had stored honey, and 
raised brood for a sufficient time to have a second 
batch of drones considerably advanced ; but adverse 
circumstances had greatly overmatched the al fresco 
colony, and after a brave stand they had succumbed^ 
Fig. 4.— Hypothetical Arrangement of Swarms. 
A and B, Cross Sections of Cluster — hh. Building Bees ; ?<■&, Warming Bees. 
C, Cross Section after Combs are built— c, Combs ; other letters as before. 
as bees in this climate so placed must. That external 
protection is essential, and that the instinct of the 
bee leads it always to seek it, is certain ; and now, 
as in the primeval forest, the hollow tree constantly 
furnishes for it a domicile while, failing this, it will 
shift in almost any cavity, and under my observation 
have fallen many odd choices, amongst which figure 
a wooden pump, giving entrance by the spout, a 
hollow wall, beneath the floor of a summer house, 
under the roof of a church, a recess in Dover Cliff, 
a disused chimney, and a pillar letter-box, from 
