226 AUSTRALASIAN 
fifty minutes with the aid of chloroform. His method is to 
fit three pieces of sponge pretty tightly into the nozzle of a 
smoker ; on the middle piece he pours a teaspoonful of chloro- 
form; he then puffs the fumes for a quarter of a minute into 
each hive which has been previously prepared by being made 
queenless. In about two minutes he returns to the first one 
and gives it a few more puffs, and so on through the whole, at 
the same time letting the queens run in; and if it be in the 
middle of the day he puffs them a third time after about two 
minutes more, in order to catch the bees that are coming in. 
He says: “I have during the past season taken the worst 
cases of fertile workers and the most difficult queenless colonies 
that I ever had to deal with, and I never missed yet.” I 
believe this statement refers more particularly to mated queens, 
but I suppose the plan would work equally well with virgins. 
“ SHIPPING” QUEENS. 
I make use of this term “shipping” because it is now so 
generally adopted that scarcely any other word would be under- 
stood to convey the meaning intended, although it is by no 
means necessarily connected with the idea of conveyance by 
ship or by water. It is the term which Americans apply to all 
manner ef “ sending off” yueens, bees, honey or other com- 
modities, whether by road. railway, or sea. As regards the 
transport of queens it would be more correctly termed posting 
or mailing queens, as they are generally forwarded by post 
parcels. 
Wonderful progress las been made of late in sending bees 
and queens safely over long distances. Not long ago it 
was considered risky to send a caged queen on a voyage 
occupying more than eight or nine days, but within the 
last eighteen months they have arrived safe after travelling 
over twenty days. This success is due to the improve- 
ments made both in the shipping cages and in the food 
supplied to the queens and bees. Formerly hard candy 
and water was placed in the cages, but some two years 
ago Mr. I. R. Good, an American, invented a much more suit: 
able food which serves the purprse without water. The use of 
this, together with the improved cages, has quite revolutionised 
the queen trade. I make the “Good candy,” asit is called, by 
