126 THE HUMBLE-BEE vil 
by fresh ones emerging: this can only happen if 
there is plenty of brood in all stages. 
I found it possible to save these perishing colonies 
by bringing them indoors, where I confined each 
colony in a box and fed it liberally with honey and 
also with pollen that I obtained from a honey-bees’ 
comb and placed in a special cell. This treatment, 
continued for about a fortnight in the case of the 
most impoverished colonies and for about a week 
in those that were stronger, produced in every case 
a wonderful improvement. The bees appeared to 
take fresh heart, tending the brood with increased 
zeal, so that the pupz developed into bees without 
any further delay; the half-starved larve rapidly 
grew to full size, span their cocoons, and later on 
developed into strong and vigorous workers ; the 
queen also recommenced laying eggs. In short, 
prosperity returned, and the colonies when put back 
into their domiciles were generally able, after a few 
evenings’ feeding, to support themselves. Moreover, 
it was much easier for me to look after the colonies 
indoors than in their respective domiciles. One 
poor Zatrezlle/lus queen and her young were nursed 
back to life in this way from the last stage of ex- 
haustion. I unexpectedly found her in one of my 
nests when lifting the unoccupied ones as late as 
July 27. She was in a drowsy state and had a 
little lump of brood, most of which proved to be 
dead, and one drowsy worker. I gave them a 
worker from another nest, and after about two 
weeks’ treatment they recovered. 
