BEES TRAVEL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 65, 17 March 1936, Page 11

BEES TRAVEL.

5000 MILES BY AIR. FROM RHODESIA TO LONDON.HOT BOTTLES AND BLANKETS. (Special—By Air Mail.) LONDON', February 22. Shrouded in tliiek blankets and protected from the rigours of winter by hot-water bottles, the world's strangest air cargo—a swarm of stingless bees — arrived in England this week after travelling nearly 5000 miles. Except for the journey from Paris to London, which was made by train and boat, the swarm had come all the way from Southern Rhodesia by Imperial Airways—and if they had been millionaires no greater care could have been taken to see that they were unharmed. They left Southern Rhodesia more than a week ago, en route 'for the London Zoo, their own special bit of tree, on which they swarm in their home climate, being brought with them. At Victoria the bees were niet by Zoo officials and a member of Imperial Airways' Croydon staff. They were then placed in a motor car which had been fitted with steel hot-water bottles covered with fur, and taken to the Zoo. Stingless bees produce much more honey than others, and the Zoo is about to try to raise a family worth far more than its weight in honey- The bees are the size of large ants. Installed in their rotting-wood hive encircled by a glass cylinder and with a thermometer alongside registering 7S degrees Falir., they settled down to work on clearing away the reniains of the wax and cotton wool i with which their entrance and exit had bete ecalcd.

They arc not beautiful to look 'at, little ant-like creatures with black wings.