(1969 (heredity))

location	number
Hollow of old woods	2
Space between natural rocks or bricks	2
Under floor of house	7
Garrets of temples	2
Space between wood walls of house	1
Gravestone	2
Kiln for charcoal	1

In 1969, Dr. Matsuura ( Mie University )reported on location of nests of Japanese honeybee in nature as shown in the table. His observation was performed in Wakayama prefecture. The bees built their hives in the place with no direct sunshine and with narrow entrance, which only the bees could pass through. Many nests were found under the floor . Size of the nest depends on room of the space.

I explored a city area (northeast of Osaka prefecture) and observed nests of Japanese bee. The result was summarized in the table. The most of hives were found in charnel space of graves. It is probably due to easiness to find. Second were the hives in garret of houses. Many hives in the garret were found in summer by dropping of liquefied honey on the ceiling due to high temperature.
Since there were a few big trees with natural cave, number of hives in the caves of tree, where naturally bees lived, is not so many. It is remarkable that about 10% of hives were found open space, like under the eaves or branches of trees.
The size of the hives in my observation depends on the size of the nest space, as Dr. Matuura mentioned, and also depends on their age. I have found big hives, with the size of h 80 x w 60 cm and more than three years old, in a loft space.

honeybee's hives
(1994-2003.3)

location	number
Gravestone	57
Garrets of temples and house	32
Space between natural rocks or bricks	15
Hollow of old woods	15
Open space under the eaves or branches of trees	16
Under floor of houses or barns	16
In the small shrine	1
In the waste pipe	1
Core of coiled cable	1
Footwear box	3
In the concrete fence	1
Log house	1
total	156

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