With the Renfrewshire cage (page 199 as above) all the variation needed is to place the cage between instead of within the combs, so as to permit of the queen's release at the bottom. The inventor considers that this gives an advantage in introducing her majesty in the first place to those bees that have been engaged in feeding her; but, as already noticed, it is not the feeding, but the familiarising with her presence, which is the great point, and that is surely quite as well accomplished with the other cage as this. There is also here no opportunity, as in the other case, of being certain whether she is well received or not, so that we always put a good-sized board under the entrance, and examine the next day whether she has been thrown out dead or not. In effecting the exchange with cottage hives, the bees must first be driven out into another hive (as described at page 226), and after the old queen is removed they must be sprinkled with a little water flavoured with a drop of extract of peppermint (to be obtained of any chemist), which overcomes the particular hive-scent, and makes all smell alike; then throw the new queen in among them and place the mass of them back in the hive. If preferred, an eke (page 186) may be placed on the stand, the bees precipitated into it, and the hive of combs placed above, when the bees will ascend. If this is done in the evening the queen will in most cases be well received. As there is no opportunity of excising queen cells, the process should be performed, say, in the middle of October, when breeding has ceased. Stupefying the bees with fungus is a method devised by Huber as applicable in any kind of hive, and it has been highly approved of and declared to be infallible. A strange queen is generally well received by young bees, whether she be Italian or English--for we have never found the slightest difference in reception, though Mr. Wagner (Langstroth's "Honey Bee," page 325) was of opinion that there is more opposition in the case of the foreigner. The difficulty is to have a sufficient number of such young bees. In the middle of a hot summer's day a stock may be divided and the part with the old queen left in its former position, while the other part, with as many brood combs as it is prudent to take, may be removed a few yards off. The old bees that have been brought with the latter will in three or four hours have most of them returned to their former abode, and the new queen may then with safety be given to the remainder without caging, taking care to introduce her to the young bees on the combs. This task must only be attempted on a warm midsummer day and when the night temperature need not be feared for the young brood in its deserted condition. Stocks may be divided and artificial swarms formed in this way--from the end of May to the beginning of July--if the apiarian has queens in readiness. § IX. ITALIANISING.