BEE MANUAL. 229 



no possibility of them stinging any person handling the cage, 

 nor the contents injuring anything in the mail bag. In the 

 postal regulations, any article likely to injure the contents of 

 the mail bag or do bodily harm to the officers is not allowed to 

 be sent by post. Some years ago I wrote to the Postmaster- 

 General of New Zealand, and sent him a specimen queen-cage, 

 asking his permission to mail queens, and received his consent ; 

 but this would assuredly be withdrawn if any complaints were 

 made by the officials. Bee- keepers in America some four years 

 ago were put to great inconvenience and loss owing to queens 

 being prohibited to be sent through the mails, due to the 

 negligence of some one not putting them up properly, and it 

 was only after some considerable time and difficulty that Pro- 

 fessor Cook managed to get the prohibition withdrawn. It 

 therefore behoves all to be very careful in this matter. 



SHIPPING WHOLE COLONIES. 



It is often necessary to deliver valuable queens accompanied 

 by either a nucleus or a full colony, and therefore a few words 

 with reference to the safe packing of such colonies when 

 intended for travelling long distances will not be out of place 

 here. 



The main requisites are, to have the frames well secured so 

 that they cannot move ; to see that the box or hive is well 

 ventilated ; and that sufficient food and water are supplied. 



Shipping boxes made for the purpose out of light material 

 are much handier and less expensive than the ordinary hives. 

 I make mine out of half-inch timber. The sides are llin. deep 

 and 19in. long ; the ends 10 Jin. deep and wide enough to take 

 the number of frames required. Fillets of wood half-an-inch 

 square and the length of an end of a frame are nailed inside on 

 each end, far enough apart to allow the frames to slide between 

 them easily. A small notch is cut out of one end for an 

 entrance, and covered with a piece of tin. Nine holes of one 

 inch diameter are bored on each side, six in a line two inches 

 from the bottom and three the same distance from the top edge, 

 and these are covered with wire cloth on the inside. The sides 

 are nailed to the ends, and kept flush at bottom ; this leaves 

 the ends three-quarters of an inch short on top. A batten fin. 

 thick and 2in. wide is then nailed on the outside at top of the 



