146 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLAY 



of the practical bee owner is first to obtain the 

 largest number of workers before the honey-bearing 

 flowers blossom, and then to set them to work in 

 the factory on improved principles. This is the 

 point at which most bee-keeping manuals begin, 

 after references to the mental solace derived from 

 the pursuit, and encouraging tables of profits made 

 by the sale of honey. Large * stocks,' or single 

 communities, are produced by the best queen bees. 

 At what age the queen is ' best ' is a point not 

 agreed on by the authorities. Mr Simmins holds 

 that none should be kept after the second summer. 

 Queen bees are a special product, provided as an 

 article of separate purchase, and are often c mailed ' 

 from America in cages, though we learn that 

 ' recently, through the short-sightedness or the 

 prejudice of the postal authorities, many foreign 

 queens have been returned to the senders.' The 

 travelling-cages of queen-bees are among the minor 

 appliances of the new bee-machinery. They are made 

 in three compartments, one of which is ventilated for 

 a saloon in hot weather, one less airy in case of 

 cooler temperature, while a third contains the food- 

 supply. The ' sweating ' process begins with the 

 queen, who is encouraged to lay 'early and often.' 

 British queen bees are admitted to do their duty 

 v in this respect. But foreign labour is introduced 



