92 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



bring them home and prepare a domicile for them. 

 The bees will be none the worse for being confined 

 in the jar for one or two hours, provided they have 

 been supplied with air and are not too numerous 

 fifty are enough for a i lb. jam jar of 2\ ins. dia- 

 meter. The brood will not suffer from the tempor- 

 ary loss of bees if it is not exposed for long to hot 

 sunshine or a cold wind. 



Humble-bees cannot be kept in wooden hives 

 like honey-bees, mainly for two reasons ; one is 

 that the jarring caused by the opening and shutting 

 of the hive would throw them into excitement and 

 confusion, and the other is that in order to keep the 

 nest sweet and clean it is necessary for it to rest 

 upon, or be surrounded by earth. 



The simplest way to re-establish the colony is to 

 place the comb, surrounded with a good supply of 

 moss or curly, soft, dead blades of grass, upon the 

 ground any convenient part of the garden will do 

 putting a large box or flower- pot upside down 

 over it to protect it from sunshine and rain. The 

 bees will soon draw the material over the comb, 

 making themselves very comfortable and warm 

 underneath it. But if a view of the comb is de- 

 sired it should be placed without any material under 

 a Sladen cover (see page 109), or enclosed in a 

 box scarcely larger than itself and having no top 

 or bottom, the box being covered with a sheet 

 of glass. This box may be placed on the ground 

 inside an outer box, but for frequent or long-con- 

 tinued observations a much more convenient and 



