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OUEENS IN CONFINEMENT i, 



lost, and as it was early in the season and workers 

 were scarce, I found it best to keep them confined 

 until they were reinforced by the young workers 

 that emerged, feeding them regularly with honey 

 and pollen. Letting them out, however, on fine 

 days always had a good effect, and when at 

 last they were numerous enough to be allowed 

 continuous liberty, the brood flourished and multi- 

 plied rapidly. 



The chief difficulty, indeed, in starting these 

 colonies was in finding sufficient terrestris and 

 lucoruvi workers for them. These workers do 

 not appear until June, and are not plentiful until 

 July. Fortunately terrestris queens, unlike those 

 of any other species, continue to appear for five or 

 six weeks after the majority of the nests have been 

 started, and may be found in numbers searching 

 for nests throughout June and in the beginning 

 of July. 



With the object of overcoming the difficulty in 

 obtaining workers, I tried to get a terrestris colony 

 started with the workers of B. pratorum, which 

 appear earlier than those of any other species, and 

 may always be taken in plenty on the flowers of the 

 white dead-nettle towards the end of May. 



Two searching terrestris queens were caught 

 and confined together on May 12. On May 22 I 

 introduced a pratorum worker into the nest. On 

 May 23 one of the queens killed the other, and 

 laid some eggs. The pratorum worker took no 

 notice of the eggs. On May 24 I gave two more 



