VII 
DOMESTICATION OF ‘THE HUMELE. 
BEE 
Ir one takes a colony with its brood and places it 
in a suitable receptacle in the garden or on a shelf 
of the humble-bee house, one sees how its existence 
is maintained and ends ; but one gets no information 
as to how the colony started and what took place 
during its early stages, a particularly interesting 
period. Nests in the stage before any workers have 
emerged may be discovered without much difficulty, 
and I find that it is possible to remove them suc- 
cessfully provided the operation is not carried out 
until after the first larvae have spun their cocoons. 
For, while the queen has only eggs or young larve 
to care for, any alarm will cause her to desert the 
nest; but as the brood grows older her attachment 
to it increases, and when it consists of pupz that 
are not far from developing into workers she will 
not readily forsake it, any slight interference causing 
her to brood over it more devotedly than ever. At 
this period, if the queen is secured and placed in a 
box with the brood, she will sit on it until the 
102 
