6 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



thus been laid bare, and their requirements, which 

 are quite different from those of the honey-bee, 

 have been studied and supplied. In addition, 

 various attempts have been made with queens to 

 establish the colonies artificially ; these have been 

 partially successful, and have revealed several 

 interesting facts about humble-bees, especially re- 

 specting their adaptability to treatment and their 

 intelligence. 



Only a very few of the numerous queens that set 

 out in the spring with so much promise succeed in 

 establishing colonies. Their failure is due not so 

 much to unfavourable weather as to the attacks of 

 enemies. In its early stages the brood is very 

 liable to be eaten by ants or mice : when this danger 

 is past a humble-bee of the idle genus Psithyrus 

 may enter the nest, kill the queen, and make slaves 

 of her children ; at a still later period the brood may 

 be consumed by the caterpillars of a wax-moth. 

 As soon as any of these foes have found and entered 

 the nest there is no escape for the inhabitants from 

 destruction, and it has given me a good deal of 

 pleasure to try and protect the bees that have been 

 under my care from them. 



It may be asked : Can humble-bees be made to 

 produce honey for human consumption ? Under 

 favourable conditions humble-bees store honey, the 

 flavour of which, as most schoolboys know, is 

 excellent ; but, unfortunately, the amount in each 

 nest never exceeds a few ounces, so that to obtain 

 a quantity many colonies would have to be kept, 



