98 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



wooden covers, do very well in the humble-bee 

 house, the nature of this species being often to 

 make its abode in this kind of situation. I have also 

 kept colonies of terrestris, lucorum, and rzideratus 

 in the humble-bee house, and they have done well. 

 Some of the colonies were dug up in the fields, 

 where they had a large comb and many workers. In 

 these cases the comb was packed into two 4-in. x 5-in. 

 sections, and no smaller sections were used. I see 

 no reason why colonies of the carder-bees should 

 not flourish equally well in a humble-bee house. 



It is sometimes an advantage to be able to 

 separate the sections after they have been filled with 

 comb. This can be done by previously stretching 

 fine tinned wire three or four times across the 

 bottom of each section on fine nails driven into 

 the underside of the section. From one of my 

 lapidarius nests I removed the two bottom sections 

 filled with cocoons containing over four ounces of 

 thick honey without destroying the colony. 



My humble-bee house was situated so that it was 

 shaded from sunshine during the greater part of 

 the day. This was rather important, for continuous 

 sunshine on the black felt roof would soon have 

 made the humble-bees uncomfortably hot. 



The grass was allowed to grow high all round 

 the house. The workers found their way in and 

 out through it easily, and the variety of its growth 

 helped them to recognise the exact position of their 

 respective entrances. 



When all the eight domiciles were occupied by 



