350 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
this is tacked a thin wooden lid. The bees have a 
certain control over their temperature by using the 
hrst or second opening, as circumstances dictate. 
The food supplies no material to collect in the 
bowel, and so the little captives arrive in a perfectly 
cleanly condition; and the ease with which a journey 
is endured will be best seen by outlining a circum- 
stance referred to by Mr. Benton.* On August 
i6th, 1886, he packed, amongst other queens, a first- 
grade Cyprian to myself. Upon her arrival in 
London, she was returned by the post-office officials 
as “ not mailable,” and thirty-three days after her 
removal from her hive she was again at her starting- 
point. The bees were then “in fine order — but two 
workers dead, rest bright and lively, queen as fresh 
as though just taken from the hive ; the box without 
a speck, and with no bad smell ; food about two- 
thirds consumed.” She was allowed five days in a 
stock, and then forwarded to me a second time, z>ia 
iMunich, and was introduced, by Mr. Simmins’ method, 
upon the evening of her arrival, after fifty-one days’ 
travelling, and she is now laying splendidly in a hive 
labelled “ Madame la \Tyageuse.” 
To return to our subject. Some use a dome cage for 
keeping the queen her thirty minutes in solitary con- 
finement ; but I prefer a loosely-corked, wide, short test 
tube, which must, of course, be kept up to Fahr., 
or thereabouts. Placing the tube in the trousers 
pocket will save the queen from chill while we are 
going to the hive; and as the tube is approximately 
upright, and she cannot climb the side, we have her 
* British Bee Journal, Vol. XIV., page 461. 
