reply will say that I know of nothing to 

 prevent me from attending to the duties, in 

 consequence of which I will accept the po- 

 sition. I shall ever remember with pleas- 

 ure the meeting in Philadelphia. I there 

 had the pleasure of forming the acquaint- 

 ance of Mr. Newman, with a host of others, 

 that I had been dealing with before and 

 since. I especially remember J. H. Nellis, 

 H. Alley, J. P. Moore, N. N. Betsinger, L. C. 

 Root, A. J. King, T. G. Newman and Mr. 

 Coe. I found all agreeable gentlemen. Bees 

 are doing nothing at all 



Respectfully, T. B. Parker. 



Long-Distance Shipping Cage. 



We have received from Messrs. C. W. 

 & A. H. K. Blood, of Quincy, Mass., 

 one of their long-distance queen ship- 

 ping cages from which we have had an 

 engraving made, and present it with 

 this letter. This letter and illustration 

 will more fully answer the question 

 propounded by Mr. Otto Halblieb, on 

 page 368 of this number, and w r hich 

 was in press before the following letter 

 was received : 



We have shipped queens in boxes 

 with sponges filled with honey, with 

 honey in small frames, and with sugar 

 candy, and find the latter keeps the 



bees in the best condition. The trouble 

 with all boxes containing honey is, that 

 the bees fill themselves with honey 

 every time they are disturbed, and die 

 from this cause. This is impossible 

 when they are furnished with candy, as 

 they are obliged to change this solid to 

 a liquid before it can be consumed, 

 which process requires some time. 



Many have had failures with candy 

 cages on accouut of the candy becom- 

 ing very dry and water not being prop- 

 erly provided. To avoid this, we place 

 in our boxes two vials of water, facing 

 in opposite directions, so that in what- 

 ever position the box may be, the bees 

 shall have access to one of them. Ihe 



stoppers have a slot cut in the side and 

 a piece of cotton twine in the same, 

 which by capillary attraction becomes 

 saturated and enables the bees to ob- 

 tain the water easily. We have ship- 

 ped queens to Texas and California in 

 these cages, and they arrived in good 

 condition. 



We make the boxes larger than those 

 commonly used, and send more bees. 

 This increases the cost a little, but as 

 most of the queens we send out are im- 

 ported or valuable, we find it pays, for 

 it is poor policy to economize in the 

 cost of shipping, and thereby lose 

 queens. 



Comb Foundation. 



We are frequently asked by visitors, 

 and by letters, as to the relative merits 

 of competing articles for use in the 

 apiary, and as nearly every manufac- 

 turer lays claim to superior merits for 

 the article of his production, we make 

 it a point, so far as possible, to submit 

 all to a practical test in the American 

 Bee Journal, apiary. In nothing, per- 

 haps, has more interest been manifested 

 than comb foundation, and no article 

 has been the cause of so much comment 

 pro and con. So far as our experiments 

 have extended, we must certainly in- 

 dorse the Dunham foundation for use 

 in the brood-chamber, if immediate 

 and speedy results are desired. In 

 fact, the only serious objection to its 

 use, is the disposition of the bees to 

 crowd upon it in too great numbers, 

 and unless very firmly fastened, they 

 soon break it down from sheer weight 

 of numbers. To obviate this difficulty, 

 we find it safest to place strips, five 

 inches in width and of full length, in 

 our Langstroth frames, to put in colo- 

 nies ordinarily strong. When colonies 

 are very weak, and we desire to build 

 up rapidly, we piace in full sheets. As 

 a trial test of foundation of different 

 makes, we placed eight one-pound sec- 

 tions in a Langstroth case, using one 

 thin flat-bottom starter ; also one each 

 from two dealers, made with Root's 

 machine, and three starters of Dunham 

 foundation, leaving two boxes without 

 starters. These were placed in the case 

 without reference to choice of position. 



