VII 



DOMESTICATION OF THE HUMBLE- 

 BEE 



If one takes a colony with its brood and places it 

 in a suitable receptacle in the garden or on a shelf 

 of the humble-bee house, one sees how its existence 

 is maintained and ends ; but one gets no information 

 as to how the colony started and what took place 

 during its early stages, a particularly interesting 

 period. Nests in the stage before any workers have 

 emerged may be discovered without much difficulty, 

 and I find that it is possible to remove them suc- 

 cessfully provided the operation is not carried out 

 until after the first larvae have spun their cocoons. 

 For, while the queen has only eggs or young larvae 

 to care for, any alarm will cause her to desert the 

 nest ; but as the brood grows older her attachment 

 to it increases, and when it consists of pupae that 

 are not far from developing into workers she will 

 not readily forsake it, any slight interference causing 

 her to brood over it more devotedly than ever. At 

 this period, if the queen is secured and placed in a 

 box with the brood, she will sit on it until the 



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