124 THE HUMBLE-BEE vn 



a state of suspended animation, until there comes a 

 fine morning with a rising temperature, when they 

 wake up and resume work with undiminished energy. 

 But if starvation is long continued the comb grows 

 mouldy and bees and brood die. 



Experiments with humble-bees in previous years 

 had elicited the interesting fact that feeding them 

 tends to make them lazy, although feeding honey- 

 bees has no such effect. The reason may perhaps 

 be that the humble-bee worker, being less differenti- 

 ated from the queen than the honey-bee worker, 

 follows to some extent her mother's instinct of 

 ceasing to work as soon as she finds food provided. 

 To prevent my humble-bees from becoming lazy I 

 never commenced to feed a colony until it became 

 quite necessary, and then I fed it only in the evening 

 when the day's work was done, except in bad cases, 

 which were fed also in the morning. In continu- 

 ously unfavourable weather I found that the colonies 

 that were well and regularly fed always did better 

 than those that were fed only occasionally. 



I find two parts of honey mixed with one of 

 water makes a suitable food or rather drink for 

 humble-bees. But if this mixture is left unconsumed 

 from day to day it soon sours, and I usually add to 

 it some of the syrup I make for my honey-bees, 

 because this contains a little naphthol-beta, a germi- 

 cidal drug which prevents fermentation. 



The food is injected into the cells by means of a 

 bulb syringe such as is used for filling fountain pens, 

 procurable from any stationer for 2d. For occasional 



