Frank Chapman Pellett in History of American Beekeeping states: "The first queens to be sent by mail probably were sent in 1863, by CJ Robinson, of Richfield, to Langstroth. ... The bees reached Langstroth in good condition and, in return, he sent a fine Italian queen to Robinson." <end> Conflicting information... I located writings from Robinson stating that he had sent the first queen thru the mail to Langstroth during the time Parsons first stock of Italian bees was 'in transit' across the Atlantic from Europe. Parsons stock of Italians were in transit in either 1859 or 1860 Best Wishes, Joe Waggle http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/ *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm