We have two kinds of cage for this purpose. One of them is a wire dome to be placed over the queen, when with a card carefully slipped underneath she can be kept secure until the hive is prepared to receive her favourably. It is nearly the same as Kleine's cage for protecting royal cells, as described under "Queen-Rearing" (Chap. V. § vii.). Another cage, devised and strongly recommended by "A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper," is flat in form and neatly made of wire net; it is two inches deep, one and a quarter wide, and three-eighths of an inch thick; the top is of the same material, and projects one-eighth of an inch all round as a flange to prevent slipping too far between the combs. The door consists of stronger wires reaching across the bottom of the cage; these are fixed at one end, and have two more wires fastened to them at the other, which wires pass up at the corners and are brought out at the top, where a push with the thumb will cause the bottom to project open. Into this cage we consider there is more difficulty in introducing the queen than into the other, as she has to be taken hold of with the thumb and finger and passed within the narrow opening; and though some of the cages are made with an entry-valve at the top, the risk of injuring the queen remains, in our opinion, greater than with the domed cage. The mode of procedure with each of these will be found described under "Introducing New Queens" (Chap. V. § viii.). § XVII. QUEEN AND DRONE PREVENTER. [Illustration] Much disappointment is often felt, when removing a super that appears well filled with honey, at finding that brood, and not honey, is in many of the cells. In such a case the super should be replaced on the hive until such time as the brood has hatched out. The comb will be found to be discoloured, but there is no help for that. The fact of there being even a few cells so occupied is a great deterioration. This little contrivance, however, excludes both the queen and the drones, the wires or strips of zinc being fixed too close together to admit of their passage, though wide enough for the worker bees. It is adapted for any hole that it will cover, but more especially for the openings in the tops of straw hives communicating with the supers. Some of our better-class hives are fitted with slides pierced in like manner, or else with sheets of perforated zinc to ensure the same end. The queen-preventer also serves a useful purpose in preventing pollen being carried into the supers, as the edges of the wires or bars act as scrapers upon the legs of the bees. § XVIII. BEE-TRAPS.