98 THE HUMBLE-BEE vI 
wooden covers, do very well in the humble-bee 
house, the nature of this species being often to 
make its abode in this kind of situation. I have also 
kept colonies of terrestris, lucorum, and ruderatus 
in the humble-bee house, and they have done well. 
Some of the colonies were dug up in the fields, 
where they had a large comb and many workers. In 
these cases the comb was packed into two 4-in. x 5-in. 
sections, and no smaller sections were used. I see 
no reason why colonies of the carder-bees should 
not flourish equally well in a humble-bee house. 
It is sometimes an advantage to be able to 
separate the sections after they have been filled with 
comb. This can be done by previously stretching 
fine tinned wire three or four times across the 
bottom of each section on fine nails driven into 
the underside of the section. From one of my 
lapidarius nests I removed the two bottom sections 
filled with cocoons containing over four ounces of 
thick honey without destroying the colony. 
My humble-bee house was situated so that it was 
shaded from sunshine during the greater part of 
the day. This was rather important, for continuous 
sunshine on the black felt roof would soon have 
made the humble-bees uncomfortably hot. 
The grass was allowed to grow high all round 
the house. The workers found their way in and 
out through it easily, and the variety of its growth 
helped them to recognise the exact position of their 
respective entrances, 
When all the eight domiciles were occupied by 
