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 ayo I wrote to the Postmaster- 
General of New Zealand, and sent him a specimen quecn-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but this would assuredly be withdrawn if any complaints were 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fessor Cook managed to get the prohibition withdrawn.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 cr 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 1lin. deep 
and 19in. long; the ends 104in. 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 theinside. 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 Zin. 
thick and 2in. wide is then nailed on the outside at top of the 
