and tts Economic Management. 341 
When inserting queens by caging, it is necessary to 
keep all queen cells destroyed, or the new-comer will 
seldom be received. She is to them unserviceable, and 
yet present in the hive all the time the bees know they 
have the means of raising their own, and hence a dislike 
once began is only fed into an angry flame simply by the 
continued irritation caused by the constant attempt to get 
at the stranger, and not seldom by the bee-keeper’s own 
interference. Under this process of frequent disturbance, 
the queen will sometimes even herself be the first to attack 
the bees, and then, of course, there is no hope for her if not 
again confined. 
The Benton Mailing Cage 
has made it possible to insert queens safely without | 
removing them from the mail cage. Most cages sent out 
by breeders now have a plug at one end, nearest the supply 
of food ; and the cage being placed above the frames after 
removing this plug the bees gradually dispose of the food 
and so quietly liberate the new queen. 
But many losses occur by this plan where bee-keepers 
will not acknowledge the simple natural laws which govern 
the action of these interesting insects. If the queen is not 
likely to be liberated the first night after the old queen has 
been removed, she should not be allowed to escape until the 
second day has passed ; this being the most fatal period of 
any, as the bees having a lot of queen cells just prepared 
are bent upon destroying any new arrival inserted by the 
caging processes. 
Mr. G. M. Doolittle, an American bee-keeper, uses a flat 
cage, having an area of 4in. or 5in. square; this, with the 
queen in, is pressed down to the mid-rib of the comb just 
over hatching brood. Of course all the young bees 
hatching out pay homage to the only queen they know; 
4 
