140 THE HUMBLE-BEE vu 
way.’ But the case of the humble-bee is somewhat 
different, for although it is usual for the queen to 
fly away from the nest to get fertilised, copulation 
will, under certain conditions, take place in the 
nest. Indeed, the difficulty with humble-bees is 
not so much in getting them to pair as in hiber- 
nating them. But, from experiments that I have 
made with 2. dapidarius | feel convinced that both 
pairing and hibernation can be accomplished under 
human control. 
On September 5, 1910, I placed six queens and 
twelve males from my J/afzdarius nests in a large 
box covered with wire-cloth, having four inches of 
loose earth in the bottom. I gave them an artificial 
flower consisting of a disc of red cloth tacked to the 
top of a stick and surmounted with three beeswax 
cups fastened to the cloth with melted beeswax. 
These cups I filled night and morning with diluted 
honey through the wire-cloth by means of my bulb 
syringe, and the bees soon learnt to come to them, 
On September 8 and g there was much copulating. 
On the oth, two holes in the earth, evidently where 
queens had attempted to burrow, were observed. 
On the roth two more holes were made in the 
earth. But none of the queens buried themselves, 
and as they continued in a very active and restless 
state I let them all fly three days later. 
On August 16, 1911, the attempts were renewed, 
and I confined ten queens in one very large box, 
1 Except by colour selection. See my papers on this subject in the Brétésh 
Bee Journal, December 1909. 
