ITS DOMESTICATION 103 



workers emerge, provided of course that she is 

 supplied with food. The queen's intelligence is 

 seen at its best while she is thus caring for her 

 brood, and her devotion to it, and her alertness on 

 the slightest approach of danger, are most interesting 

 to witness. She shows no desire to escape unless 

 she is severely molested, and is quite content with 

 her brood, anxiously incubating it day and night. 

 It is important not to allow the queen her liberty, 

 for if she is permitted to take wing she will return 

 to the original location of her nest and, after vainly 

 searching about for it there, she will fly away and 

 be no more seen. As a precaution against loss, 

 her wings may be clipped. 



In May 1909 a lucorum queen was found to 

 have occupied a mouse-nest under a large box 

 that had been placed, bottom upwards, on the 

 grass in my apiary the previous year. As the nest 

 contained cocoons, I brought the queen with her 

 brood indoors and fed her daily. She was devoted 

 to her brood and never left it except to drink the 

 honey I provided, or to perform other necessary 

 duties, and, she showed great agitation if, when 

 returning to the brood, she did not find her way 

 to it at once. When the workers emerged I clipped 

 the queen's wings, and put the box containing the 

 nest out of doors, under an inverted flower-pot, 

 feeding the bees a little during the first few even- 

 ings. In a few days the little colony was able to 

 support itself and it soon grew fairly prosperous. 

 In due course it produced males and queens, but 



