SHIPPING QUEENS. 811 
The shipping boxes in which bees are usually sent from 
Italy, are about three inches deep, by three inches in width, 
and four inches in length, with two small frames of comb, 
one with thick sugar syrup, the other dry. From fifty to 
seventy-five bees are put with one queen in each box. Air 
holes are cut into the sides of the boxes, and these are fas- 
tened together in a pyramidal shape, with an outer covering 
of tin, to which is fastened the handle. Queens thus put 
up, have reached us after thirty-six days of confinement with 
very little loss, and it is in this way that the greatest num- 
ber of imported queens are received. 
The usual transit from Italy to New York, takes from ten 
to fourteen days. If the importer receives his bees, through 
a custom-house broker, they will not be delayed in the cus- 
tom-house, but, if this precaution is neglected, the bees may 
be held at the custom-house for clearance, and the poor 
insects will die, martyrs to the protection (?) of the coun- 
try’s interests. 
597. We might mention in connection with this, an oft- 
repeated incident, so touching and sweet, as to seem more 
like a romancer’s fable, or a poetic idyl, than a mere fact. 
On receiving the boxes containing Italian queens, we noticed 
that frequently all the bees shipped with the queen had 
died, she being the only one alive in her prison. We after- 
ward found out that the faithful little subjects had denied 
themselves nourishment, and starved to death, sacrificing 
themselves, that their queen might not be deprived of food. 
Martine QUEENS. 
598. To Mr. Frank Benton is due the credit of first 
mailing queens safely across the ocean, but the mailing of 
them, with more or less success on the American continent, 
has been practiced for years. Messrs. J. H. Townley and 
H. Alley, appear to have been the first to succeed, as early 
as 1868. 
