OF THE HUMBLE-BEE. 65 



bee, for they cannot begin till the season will allow, having no provision 

 in store. I found in the summer of 1791 some young humble-bees 

 abroad about the beginning of June, viz. small ones ; and after this 

 period we seldom find the first or large queens abroad, and when they 

 do come out, I suspect that they have been disturbed or have had their 

 first hives destroyed, and that they are beginning anew. 



Of the Situation of their Hives. — Their hives are found in various 

 situations. They are in holes in the earth, especially in dry banks, in 

 holes in walls, in thatch, in hay, hi dry dung on the ground, at the 

 roots of grass, in meadows, in trees, in an old nest of some bird, in a 

 laurel-bush. 



The same species will build either in grass or under ground, for I 

 have found the queens in both, as also in dung. In whatever situation 

 they choose, they are commonly led there by some other circumstance 

 than simply situation, or else probably situation would be attended with 

 less variety ; but it seems to be more the materials of the nest that 

 induce them, than this or that situation; for often, or almost always, when 

 they can, they build their first or honeycomb in an old mouse's nest. 

 What makes me suspect this, is the similarity of the materials between 

 their hives and a mouse's nest ; and a servant, who had orders from me 

 to preserve every mouse's nest as well as humble-bee hives when mow- 

 ing, found a mouse's nest in the meadows, and upon opening the moss, 

 dried grass, &c, he found five young naked mice, and with them a humble- 

 bee, which immediately flew away : this was in the month of June. 

 This bee most probably would have put up here if there had been no 

 mice ; or if they had been further advanced, she might have made them 

 leave their quarters. I have found them in a rat's nest under ground*. 

 Upon this principle I made several experiments to entice them to 

 certain places, in which I succeeded. For instance, on the 4th of June, 

 I dug small cells or cavities in the ground, and bored a hole aslant into 

 each of sufficient size for a bee to enter. Into these cavities I put some 

 fine soft hay, and covered the cavities over with a flat stone or tile ; I 

 found humble-bee hives in several of these, for I had only to raise the 

 stone or tile and examine the hay. The first thing I observed in those 

 cavities where breeding was going on, was, that the hay where the bees 

 had taken possession was perfectly dry, while in the others it was 



* Although the humble-bees would appear of all the bee-tribe to be the greatest 

 slovens in their mode of propagation, yet most probably, like most slovens, they take 

 more pains on the whole than many of the others. The regular and methodical way 

 in which the common bee, the wasp, and the hornet begin their hives, appears to 

 give but little trouble afterwards. There seems in the humble-bee much more left 

 to the instinctive principle, as they go on, either of the young or the mother, than in 

 the above-mentioned species. 



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