We use a "deck" screw or "dry-wall" screw.  The points are sharp and the
threads fairly coarse.  A couple of turns puts the screw far enough into
the cork without expanding it appreciably.  A mini-cork screw.  Someday,
I'll get around to putting a handle on one.

Jerry Scott wrote, in part:

>        Yesterday, I went to a new hive of mine to release the queen from
>her cage.  The packages I have had in the past had the queen sealed in a
>cage with a candy plug.  This package was the first I had ever bought that
>the queen was sealed in with a cork!  I'll never buy a package with a queen
>cage sealed with a cork again.

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