VII 



ATTRACTING QUEENS 



109 



fine material I had failed to supply. It was under 

 a hive roof, and was found to be occupied by a 

 hortorum queen on June 2. The queen was occa- 

 sionally seen passing in and out up till June 9. 

 The next day, the queen not having been observed, 

 I lifted the roof and was sorry to find the nest 

 disarranged, with no trace of comb. A weasel had 



Fig. 23. Sladen's Domicile for Humble-bees. 



c, Sladen's wooden cover ; z, implement for making the tunnel ; h, mason's 



hammer for driving implement through the ground. 



been seen five yards from the spot the day before ; 



in all probability the brood had been eaten either 



by this animal or by a shrew. 



But my expectations for 19 10 were centred in 

 a new form of cover I had designed for under- 

 ground domiciles, consisting of a thick wooden disc 

 having around its edge a band of sheet metal pro- 

 jecting downwards. The metal band had its upper 

 edge turned inwards at a tin-plate factory, and this 



